The Frozen Flame
by jinx777
Summary: The day he was born, Naruto was taken from his parents and used for one of Orochimaru's twisted experiments to create the perfect human. Four years later he is found just after Orochimaru ran away from the village. The problem is that they arrived too late.
1. SubZero

**Another idea floating around in my head, hope you all like it. I'm not abandoning any of my other fics. Still have a little writer's bloke for True Horror but hopefully I will get back to it soon.**

**Few things I have changed for his story that I will explain first.**

**Orochimaru still wants to be immortal, but instead of wanting to learn all Jutsu, he wants to create the ultimate shinobi. Basically a mad scientist deal. **

**Minato and Kushina are still alive, just because I'm nice like that :) (Cough bullshit cough).**

**Kyuubi isn't sealed in Naruto but his sister, yes I know I did it before but I like it so stuff you :p**

**The Itachi is still in the village and his mother is still alive with him and Sasuke.**

**I forgot, never mind, enjoy the fic :)**

Summary- The day he was born, Naruto was taken from his parents and used for one of Orochimaru's twisted experiments to create the perfect human. Four years later he is found just after Orochimaru ran away from the village. The problem is that they arrived too late.

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 1- Sub-Zero

_September 13_

_I have acquired a new test subject, or as he will now be referred to, subject 13. Because of the Uzumaki blood that runs through his veins I have high hopes for him and what I will be able to accomplish with him as a test subject. With the Uzumaki gift of healing and long life I am sure he will respond positively to the treatment, I am one step closer to achieving my goal of creating the perfect shinobi._

_October 29_

_I have finished with my initial experiment, with the new drug I developed, formula 19; I was able to inject it into subject 13 successfully. He will develop into a stronger, faster human then ever thought possible. As he grows I will be able to monitor his progress and document the full extent of the effects it will have on his body._

_November 13_

_I have decided to use subject 13 as a bloodline limit test, using the DNA I acquired from a shinobi in the third war from Mist. The key to the perfect shinobi has always been bloodline limits, and by perfecting the implantation process I will be closer to my goal. I can't be discouraged by the unfortunate lack of progress in the Shodaime's Wood style bloodline; I fear that road may be lost because of the rare nature it possesses. By using a different bloodline, which has been confirmed to have been passed on through several generations I hope that it will be stable enough to avoid killing the host._

_December 15_

_The implantation is complete and so far there have been no signs of rejection, I am able to confirm the successful implantation of the bloodline into subject 13. His body has completely integrated the bloodline into his system; it is as if he was born with it._

_December 23_

_I realised something today, why stop at just implanting a bloodline when I could enhance them as well. With my intellect I should be able to increase the power of a bloodline ten fold. Using subject 13 as a genetic template I will be able to create a new race of shinobi. I have high hopes for this project; I can only pray that the improvements don't kill him. This is all in the name of perfection, with my work I will create the next generation, and it will be better then the last._

_June 2 _

_I have finished a drug that should in theory be able to increases the potency of certain bloodlines. Now that it is complete I will start to administer the drug into subject 13's system tomorrow._

_June 24_

_So far there has been no change to subject 13, I am wondering if I made a mistake somewhere in the formula. He isn't having a negative reaction but neither is he having a positive one either. If there is no change within the next mouth, I will attempt a higher dosage. It is risky, but sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of perfection._

_September 13 (1 year since obtaining subject 13)_

_I fear I have made a terrible mistake. After there was no reaction to the first dosage decided to increase it by more then double the original amount in an attempt to provoke a reaction. But what I didn't realise was that the first dosage was already working, just slower then I first anticipated. By increasing it I have caused a huge over reaction. The effects are already starting to show but I still don't know what the long term changes to his body will be, but I will be sure to monitor it. The important thing is that Formula X works._

_September 13 (2 years since obtaining subject 13)_

_The effects the drug has had on subject 13's body is inconceivable, it has gone beyond simply improving the bloodline. It seems the drug is actually changing his DNA on the fundamental level, causing him to become one with the bloodline. The ramifications of this are too numerous to count; I have successfully broken the barrier between human and chakra. The only problem with this is that I am no longer able to use subject 13 as a test subject because I am no longer able to touch him directly. The overuse of the drug has pushed the bloodline too far and it is too dangerous to approach the boy at this time, I have lost four lab assistants this mouth alone. He is currently being contained in a special room designed to suppress and contain his abilities but I am unsure how long it will hold him. His abilities are growing stronger everyday. The biggest problem through is that I fear sensei may be on to me, if he were to see what I have created I'm sure he would be impressed but the lengths I have gone to in order to accomplish my goal is something he would never understand. I will be the one to create a new era, a new superior race of shinobi that will outmatch the previous generation in everyway and despite what has happened with subject 13 I still have high hopes for him. He is the first of a new race, the first perfect human._

_From this day on I have named subject 13 'Sub-Zero'._

XXX

Kushina was sat in the Hokage office with her two year old daughter sat on her lap next to her husband as he went through pile after pile of paperwork. Ever since proof of Orochimaru's treachery was found he had been dealing with so much paperwork he looked about ready to burn it with a Fire Jutsu.

It had been four years since their first born son, Naruto, went missing from his crib in the hospital. She had been so tired after the labour that and had fallen asleep, she didn't even notice someone come in and take her baby.

They had both been devastated when they were forced to call off the search parties, the thought of giving up on their son had torn them apart inside, but the village couldn't afford to keep looking like that and they had no other choice but to give up.

The decision always lay heavy on their minds, what if they had searched for just one more day, what if he had been right around a corner and they only just missed him. It was those thoughts that had plagued both their nightmares for years.

They still searched, but no to the same degree and as the years went by they had all nut lost hope.

It wasn't until little Madoka had been born that things started to go back to normal.

What had happened with the Kyuubi was unfortunate, but they loved her with all their hearts and just because she was the Jinchūriki of the nine tailed fox wouldn't change that.

She had blonde hair like her father, with the same blue eyes that Kushina loved so much. Her face was the same shape as the red headed kunoichi and on each of her cheeks were three whisker marks, the sign of the Uzumaki clan.

She was sleeping peacefully in her arms, not a care in the world, when the doors to the office were slammed open and in rushed an ANBU with a bear mask over his face. He was out of breath and Kushina was sure that if she could see his face it would be as red as her hair.

Looking up from his paperwork in slight surprise, Minato waited for the man to catch his breath before he spoke.

"What brings you to my office Bears-san, and in such a state? Did you find anymore survivors in the snake's lab?"

The ANBU before him was a part of the team led by Sarutobi into one of the most recently found labs Orochimaru had set up. Minato would have lead the team himself but the former Hokage ha asked for the responsibility, feel it was his duty as the snake's teacher to see all he had done.

Taking one last deep breath, the winded man stood up straight and addressed his Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, we found your son, we found Naruto."

The shock on both Minato and Kushina's faces was clear as day and the Bear masked ANBU knew a flood was coming.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes sir, I saw the whisker marks myself, there's no doubt it is him. Sarutobi is-"

The rest of his words were drowned out by the now enraged Kushina as she stood form her chair, a slightly scared and confused Madoka still in her arms as she screamed for all to her.

"THAT BASTERED! THAT NO GOOD, MOTHER FUCKING SNAKE!"

Before the ANBU knew what was happening he had an angry red faced Kushina yelling at him to tell her where they were.

"Sector 3, route 9, but there's something-"

Before he could get all the words out of his mouth, both Minato and Kushina had ran out the door towards where he had just told them leaving him alone in the office as he finished what he had been saying.

"... you need to know"

XXX

By the time they got their Sarutobi and the other ANBU that had searched the facility with him were just coming to the surface. Minato noticed that one of the men was being supported by another and that he was cradling his arm and if the situation was any different he would have asked for a full report on what had happened to him. But at that moment in time it was one of the last things on his mind.

Both Minato and Kushina held their breaths when they saw the last figure standing just inside the shadow of the hidden tunnel. They couldn't see his face, but from the size they could tell it was a small boy.

Handing their daughter to her husband, Kushina ran forward at a speed that would have made Might Guy jealous and was about to embrace the boy when she was stopped in her tracks by a withered hand grabbing firmly onto her shoulder and holding her in place.

Before she could ask what was wrong Sarutobi shook his head sadly, not meeting her eyes.

"I should have know you wouldn't listen to the man I sent to fetch you."

"What's going on, why did you stop me?"

"I'm sorry Kushina; if we had found him sooner we might have been able to stop this from happening. You can't touch him, I'm so sorry."

"I don't understand, what are you saying?"

Instead of answering, Sarutobi turned to the boy stood in the shadows and nodded his head for him to come forward.

"It's alright, there's nothing to be scared of."

The boy hesitated for a moment before slowly stepping into the light.

Both Kushina and Minato's faces paled.

XXX

The smell of decay was thick in the air as Sarutobi stepped into yet another of his ex-students labs. It was just like all the others, dark, damp and filled with equipment that he didn't understand the purpose for and wasn't sure he wanted to.

This one was set up more like a corridor then a room through, with what must have been hundreds of large tubes filled with a strange green liquid that bubbled as they passed. Floating in each tube was a small shrivelled _thing_ that at some point might have been a human baby, attached to a cord implanted into their stomachs that connected them to a tank set above into the roof.

The aged Hokage couldn't help the sad look that crossed his face as he thought about how he could have stopped all this years ago. He had seen the signs, the look in his eyes that showed a hint of madness and unexplained disappearances but he didn't want to believe it.

He couldn't bring himself to see it and now hundred, if not thousands of innocents had suffered all because of his refusal to act.

Along with a group of ten ANBU he had stormed the labs, only to find Orochimaru was already gone and most of his research gone with him. After that they started to look around the facility, trying to find survivors of the sick experiments.

So far they had found 5, but were forced to kill 4 of them. The things that had been done to them too much for them to handle, they had begged for death, to be realised from their pain, Sarutobi had given it to them. It was the least he could do.

The only one that didn't beg for death was a young boy no older then 12. He had short brown hair with black eyes and an almost completely blank expression on his face. They didn't know why he was there or what had been done to him because from what they could see he was the most normal living thing they had come across in these godforsaken tunnels. After a few word Sarutobi had sent him up with one of the ANBU to the surface for medical attention just to be sure.

In one of the rooms they had passed he found notes about something named subject 13, which had gotten his attention when it mentioned Uzumaki blood. He read through the notes and by the end he could feel a deep sense of dread in the pit of his stomach, but pushed it down because they had work to do.

Leaving the room and moving on to the next, Sarutobi could feel his anger grow more and more towards the snake like man that he once thought of as a son. Room after room of mutilated bodies, bloody surgical equipment and detailed notes on the things he had done were everywhere.

He was about ready to burn the whole lace down when they came to a corridor that led to a large steel door with a thin layer of frost on it set into the wall. A desk full of papers had been set to one side and as he looked from it door he could feel the dread rising in the pit of his stomach at what might be on the other side.

Making his way over to the desk, the man once known as 'The Professor' started to read through the notes while the ANBU that were with him started to try and get the door open. He was about half way though a document that spoke of something call formula X when he was pulled out of his thoughts by one of the ANBU letting out a small scream of pain

Putting the paper down and making his way over to the man who was for some reason holding his hand in pain Sarutobi grabbed his wrist and looked to find his hand covered in blisters.

"What happened?"

"I don't know I just touched the door."

Before he could think of what this could mean the other ANBU had managed to get the door open and as they pulled the steel door away a thick white mist floated out with a hiss, filling the corridor they were stood in. Taking a cautious step forward, the ANBU right behind him, Sarutobi entered the room.

"What level of hell did that bastard drag this room out of?"

The old Hokage couldn't help but agree with that assessment. The room was like one huge freezer, the walls and roof were covered by at least a foot of ice, the light shinning from the florescent lights in the ceiling making it glow a brilliant white that hurt their eyes as they walked in. The floor was covered in the same white misted that they had seen when they first opened the door, making it to sees below their knees and at seemingly random points there was what looked like people, frozen solid with terror filled faces forever set in place. Some of them were on the ground huddled in fear while other stood and looked like they had been backing away from something.

As they made their way further into the room the mist seemed to be getting thinner and before long they could see all but their feet below their ankles as they came upon the form of a small boy sat in the middle of the room with his face buried in his knees. All he had on was a sleeveless white shirt with a number stencilled onto the left shoulder and a pair of black shorts.

He couldn't have been older then four years old, with a mess of blonde hair with white steaks and small bits of ice sticking to it where it had frozen. It stopped at his shoulders and hid both sides of his face from view. At first glance he appeared to be frozen solid like the other people in the room, his white, almost blue skin clearly visible on his arms that were wrapped around his legs, the slightly longer then average nails on the ends of his small hands a deep shade of blue that stood out from the rest of his skin.

Sending regretful look to the obviously dead child for not being able to save him they were about to turn away and leave the room when they heard and small voice whispering to itself.

"Cold, s-s-so c-cold"

Sarutobi's head shot around so fast that he was sure he had given himself whiplash and quickly made his way to the boy to take a closer look. When he was only a few feet away he was able to clearly see the boy was shivering.

Just as he was about to grab the boy and carry him out of the room to get warm something hit him, what if this was the boy from the notes he had read, he matched the description and if it was him they could have a major problem on their hands. Casting another look around the room at the dead bodies he could feel the same dread he felt welling up when he read the notes on the boy dubbed 'Sub-Zero' return in full force.

His hesitation confused the group of ANBU stood behind him and before he could stop him one of the men stepped around the Sandaime and made to grab the boy to carry him out.

"I've seen too mush shit tonight, and I'll be dammed if I let this kid die in here like this."

"No wait-"

But it was too late, the second his hand touched the boy he let out a scream of pain and started to back away from the small blonde. Stumbling his way to the door and out into the corridor, cradling the hand he had used to try and pull the boy to safety. Through the mist, which was still as thick as ever and didn't seem to be dispersing even with the door open they could all see his hand and let out gasps of shock.

From the tips of his fingers up to half way up his forearm it was completely frozen solid.

Turing back to the boy on the ground who hadn't reacted to them being in the room let alone what had just happened, Hiruzen tried to calm himself down before crouching down and trying to get his attention.

"Can you understand me?"

For a moment he got no reply and just as he was about to ask again he heard a small voice, so quite he almost didn't hear it.

"C-cold, so c-cold"

"Do you know where you are, do you have a name?"

"So c-cold"

"I understand, but I need you to talk to me. Do you have a name?"

He already had a good idea of who this boy was, he wasn't called 'The Professor' for nothing, but he needed conformation.

It was then that the boy lifted his head for the first time and again they all gasped at what they saw. Like his arms and legs the young boy's skin was so pale white it almost looked blue and on each of his cheeks they could all see three dark whisker marks. His lips were such a dark blue they bordered on black and the areas around his eyes were a shade darker than the rest of his face, making them stand out slightly with his eyes a deep, sky blue with white swirling around in them.

Yes, they all new that face, even if they had only seen pictures they all recognise the whisker marks a mile away.

This boy was the missing Naruto Namikaze, stolen from his crib the night he was born while his mother slept. There had been a massive search party that had lased three whole months before he was declared dead. Both Minato and Kushina had been so upset they had only gotten over their depression with the birth of little Madoka two years ago.

None of them were able to move as they looked into the pair of cold, blue piercing eyes fixed on the Sandaime, the only sound coming from the whimpering man still cradling his hand.

"S-subject 13, codename S-sub-Zero"

The boy's eyes never left the former Hokage's as they widened in slight fear and regret. Sighing to himself internally, Sarutobi took another step forward and went to touch the boys shoulder thinking that what happened to the ANBU was because he had surprised him but was stopped in his tracks at the next thing the boy said.

"I-if you t-touch me, you w-will s-s-s-scream, t-t-t-they always s-s-s-screamed."

Watching as the boy nodded to the corpses around the room Sarutobi stopped his hand barely an inch from Naruto's skin before he reluctantly pulled back, forcing the tears down that threatened to fall at the boy's words.

'_So he gave you this power but didn't teach you to control it, you poor child._'

"Can you walk?"

"N-n-n-no point, he w-would just bring me b-back here again."

"Do you mean Orochimaru?"

"Sn-sn-snake man"

Nodding his head sadly Sarutobi spoke in as gentle a voice as possible.

"The snake man is gone; we're here to help you. If you come with us we can help you."

The small boy just sat there, eyes going blank when he heard Orochimaru was gone. They stayed silent for a while, Naruto seeming to have trouble understanding that his tormenter was gone.

Then they saw it, a small silvery tear falling out of the corner of his eye and falling down his face and leaving a trail of ice down his cheek. But what really scared them was what happened when it hit the floor.

The second it touched the ground the tear exploded out into a small pile of sharp, frozen spikes seeming to bloom like a flower as it grew to about a foot and a half before stopping.

Making a mental note to be carful around the boy Sarutobi started to lead the four year old out of his prison below the ground to the surface where without a doubt his parents would be waiting for him because of the ANBU he had sent ahead to inform the Fourth and his wife.

XXX

The moment they got over their shock at what had been done to their son, and they were a 100% sure it was their son with the whisker marks on his cheeks and the fact he looked almost exactly like a mini Minato, they rushed the still slightly frozen Naruto to the hospital.

At least they tried to.

The problem was that no matter how much Kushina wanted to pick him up and carry him in her arms she couldn't. They had been told what the room he had been kept in was like, the ice on the walls and the frozen bodies lying all over the floor along with Sarutobi telling them what had happened to the ANBU, who was already at the Konoha hospital, when he had touched him.

This meant that they were forced to move at his pace which, for a four year old boy who had been locked in a room for who knows how long wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, was still too slow for their taste. The fact he hadn't stopped shivering the whole why hadn't help the mood and they had also noticed that wherever his feet touched the ground there would be a footprint of pure ice left causing him to slip every now and then and every breath he took released a small, but noticeable cloud of mist from his mouth and nostril.

The moment they had arrived Tsunade rushed out to take them to a privet room where, being carful to avoid touching his skin, the blonde sannin preformed a series of medical Jutsu and cheeks before giving him a thick woollen blanket to try and warm himself with while Shizune came in and took a still very confused Madoka away somewhere so they could focus on what was happening.

When Tsunade was finished she turned to the others in the room and motioned with her head for them to follow her into the hall.

Closing the door behind her the blonde let out a sigh and told them what she had found.

"He should be dead"

This was met with three looks of both shock and fear, but before they could ask what she meant Tsunade shushed them and continued.

"His body temperature is at -320.44°F, the same as Liquid Nitrogen. His blood should be frozen in his veins and his body completely solid, but their not. All his bodily functions are acting normal, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, all working perfectly. In fact when I took a look at his muscle tissue and bone structure I was shocked, his body isn't just working perfect, but better then perfect. There's also something off about his chakra but I don't really understand what, it's unlike anything I have seen before."

When she had finished Minato got a confused look on his face.

"I don't understand. How is any of this possible?"

Before Tsunade could venture a guess Sarutobi pulled out a large pile of papers from his kunai pouch and held it out to her to look at.

"I think these will help shed some light on things, I haven't read them all, but what I have is quite informative. It seems Orochimaru was able to implant a bloodline into young Naruto."

"What!"

Snatching the papers away from his hands Tsunade, with Kushina and Minato reading over her shoulders, read the pages Sarutobi had singled out. The more they read the more discussed they got.

"That bastered, how dare he do this do my son! When I find him I'll make him wish he was never born!"

Before Kushina could go on about all the different ways in which she was planning to carry out her threat there was a loud noise in the room they had left Naruto in shortly followed by a muffled scream.

Without a second thought the four Hokage class ninja burst into the room to see what was going on and were met with a worrying sight.

Stood next to young Naruto's bed in full black ninja gear was a man. His face was covered and the mark of the Hidden Rock village was on his forehead protector. In his right hand he held a Kunai and looked ready to bring it down. But that wasn't what shocked them.

It was the fact he was completely frozen solid.

It took them a full minute of staring at the Rock-nin before they realized that Naruto must have grabbed onto him when he was about to stab him with the Kunai and the realization hit them all like a ton of bricks and that was all it took for them to break out of their shock.

Realizing that somehow a Rock-nin had not only found his way into the village, but also had information about his son, Minato rushed off to organize a platoon of ANBU to search the village in case there was more and to find out how the nin had information about his son when he had only found out himself a few hours ago.

Kushina ran over to her son and while being carful not to touch him made sure he was alright and sending the occasional worried glance towards the frozen ninja next to her.

Tsunade did a quick diagnostic on the Rock-nin before moving to Naruto and performing another see it anything had changed and Sarutobi had someone come in to take the frozen Rock-nin away.

XXX

**Hope you like it :)**

**R&R :)**


	2. Team 7

**I just want to make it clear that I have not actually played mortal combat and it has nothing to do with this fic.**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 2- Team 7

_April 19_

_Over the last few mouths I have been monitoring the effects that formula X has had on Sub-Zero. His body is still changing in ways I an unable to predict. So far I have been able to identify one of the, what I am sure will be many, abilities he now possesses. When making direct contact with his skin Sub-Zero is able to freeze other people. When I examined the effects further I found that the cause of this is that he is stealing the body heat from the one that touches him. At the moment he is unable to control it but with time I expect he will be able to learn how._

XXX

Naruto was crouched in a tree overlooking the bandit camp in the clearing in front of him with indifference on his face.

It was the same as all the others, shabby huts set around a large fire that could be seen for miles around as drunken men singing and dancing around celebrated another successful raid, falling over themselves every few minutes only to get back up and do it all over again.

His cold blue eyes fell on one man that was just sitting in a throne like seat at the head of the fire watching the men as they made fools of themselves with a drunken grin on his face and bottle of sake in his hand.

After backing away from the clearing and making his way back to his camp, Naruto mentally went over everything he had seen.

'_No hostages and they are all so drunk that most will be out cold in about an hour or so.'_

It wasn't any different from any of the other solo missions he had taken since becoming jonnin 6 months ago. He would sometimes work with Itachi or Tenzou, but for the most part he worked alone, proffering the peace and quite. He could still picture the faces of the examiners when he had walked into the room with Itachi, priceless.

The Uchiha prodigy was a few years older then him but they had taken their exam together, setting the recorded for being the youngest ninja in the village to become jonnin. After that he had stayed as a jonnin while Itachi joined the ANBU.

Landing in a small clearing, about a mile away from the bandit camp so as not to be seen, the now 15 year old Naruto made his way over to a small rock and sat down to wait.

Over the years Naruto had learn to control his abilities, meaning he could touch people now. He actually still had nightmares about the first time his mother had hugged him because she had been so happy that she had come close to crushing his ribcage.

He was able to learn a lot about his abilities with the help of his family, his godparents and Sarutobi- jiji. With their help he learned that he was actually unable to use normal Jutsu like clones and transformation, something about his chakra being tuned to his ice element too strongly, so they had created a whole new range of Jutsu for him to use. He was still able to use tree and water walking but other then that all his Jutsu were ice based.

His clothes had been modified by Jiraiya with the insides being covered in seals to make sure his body stayed warm, along with a few other things. He could never actually feel cold weather but because of his body he was always cold anyway, the seals just stopped him shivering all the time.

He wore a white T-shirt under a thick grey hoodie over the top with his Leaf headband tied to his left arm and the kanji for 'cool' on the right side of his chest. The hood was pulled up to cover the top half of his face, hiding it in shadows but you could still see his eyes shining slightly blue with white mist like swirls, but not the face around it. He wore a pair of dark grey pants with big brown leather boots on his feet which despite their size didn't make a sound when he moved and on his back there was a chokuto with a dark blue handle and sheath tied in place with a black cloth across his chest.

He stayed in the clearing for about two hours before getting up and making his way back to the bandit's camp.

XXX

Naruto was stood at the edge of the bandit camp, the fire still going strong but the bandits themselves were mostly on the ground snoring loudly. The leader was still in his chair with a bottle of sake in his hand and drool falling out of the side of his mouth.

After a moment of watching the few bandits that were still awake Naruto nodded to himself and sped through several hand seals.

"**Chilled Mist Jutsu**"

After taking in a deep breath Naruto blow a thick white mist out of his mouth towards the camp.

If anyone had been there to see him perform the Jutsu they would have seen the white swirling in his eyes overlap the blue completely leaving him with nothing but a black dot in each eye along with what was visible of his pale white skin turn a light shade of blue. This happened whenever he used a ninjutsu or channel his chakra but no one knew why and after so many years it didn't seem important anymore.

The Jutsu was fairly simple, by building up chakra in his lungs Naruto created an icy mist that was able to cover an entire battle field in minutes. The cold sapped the energy from those caught in it and for anyone that weren't used to fighting in the cold it was almost impossible to fight.

He watched as the mist crawled along the ground toward the sleeping forms of the men, those that had still been awake quickly followed their friends into the land of dreams and past out on the ground and as the mist reached the fire is suddenly died down to embers before going out completely.

After waiting a moment for the mist to completely settle over the camp Naruto moved in silently and walked calmly through the sleeping men as he made his way over to the leader, hands in his pockets the whole way. He didn't pause for a second when he reached his target as he took out his right hand and reached out before placing it on the sleeping man's shoulder.

He didn't even wake up he was so drunk and within seconds the bandit leader was nothing more then a frozen statue.

Naruto close his eyes as he felt the familiar warmth that spread through his body that came whenever he used this technique as it moved up from his arm and to the rest of his body. This was the only time he ever felt warm.

Without spearing the now dead bandit leader a second thought the young Namikaze turned and started to make his way through the camp, resting his hands on the men he past as he went.

Within 15 minutes the mission was over and not a single bandit was left alive.

Dispersing the mist with a wave of his hand Naruto started to look through all the bandits' supplies and seal up anything that could be used.

With the mission done he returned to the small clearing he had been in before and decided to leave for the village in the morning.

XXX

Minato was in the middle of battling the enemy of all Kage's, paperwork.

No matte how much he did it never seemed like the piles on his desk got any smaller and he was sure his secretary had been sneaking in and piling more on when he wasn't looking.

Just as he was about to start pulling his hair out in frustration a distraction came in the form of his son walking into the room and placing a sealing scroll on the desk in front of him.

At seeing Naruto he couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face.

"Naruto, it's good to see you back, I trust everything went well?"

"It's cool; the bandits have been taken care of"

"Good to hear, your mission payment will be in your account by the end of the week"

Nodding his head, Naruto turned to leave but stopped when Minato called out to him as he reached the door.

"Naruto, just to warn you, your mother and sister aren't happy you didn't say goodbye before you left."

"What, mum was on a mission and Madoka was at school"

"That's what I said but you know how they are."

"I guess, thanks for the warning. See you at home tonight dad."

With that he turned and closed the doors behind him leaving Minato to his paperwork that had actually doubled in size while he had been talking to his son.

"What the hell!"

XXX

The moment Naruto stepped through the door he was knocked to the ground by two speeding blurs, one red and one yellow. The action causing his hood to fall off his head and uncovering his pure white spiky hair that reached to just above his shoulders and light blue rings around his eyes. As he hit the ground several shards of ice fell of his head and shattered on the floor.

"I take it your happy to see me?"

This was met with two smacks to the back of his head.

Letting out a sigh Naruto got up off the floor only to find himself looking at two annoyed women.

"You know the rules Onii-san, if you're leaving the village you have to say goodbye."

"You weren't here and I needed to leave, it was unavoidable."

"No excuses Naruto, next time you do that I'm chaining you to the house."

"Not cool mum, you promised not to do that again."

"And you promised not to leave on missions without saying goodbye."

Shaking his head at his mother Naruto went to his room to unpack his supplies. He didn't have many, never needing to carry kunai or shuriken what with being able to create them out of ice when needed meant there was no reason to.

When he was done Naruto made his way back down the stair and headed to the training field out the back of the Namikaze estate while being carful to avoid his mother as she cooked in the kitchen.

When he reached the training ground Naruto unsheathed the chokuto from his back and got into a stance. For the next hour the young Namikaze moved from one stance to the next with practiced ease, being sure to control his breathing with each movement and focus on every little detail as his sword flowed through the air in a deadly dance of death.

About half way through he started to channel chakra into the blade which caused it to glow a soft white and emit a small amount of mist.

He knew Madoka had been watching him since he started and after finishing his exercise decided to show of a little for his sister. Turning to the three training logs set in the ground about ten feet away from where he was standing Naruto walked over to the one in the middle.

In one quick move that Madoka couldn't see Naruto sliced the log in half and sheathed his sword on his back in one fluid movement. But the thing that amazed his sister was that when the top half fell to the floor it shattered into tiny pieces.

The reason for this was because the sword was made with chakra metal, meaning that Naruto was able to channel his ice based chakra through it, the result of which caused whatever he cut to freeze instantly.

It had proved to be a useful tool to have on hand in several missions in the past.

Forgetting about trying to hide Madoka ran to her brother with stares in her large blue eyes.

"That was so cool Onii-san! How did you get on with your mission?"

Turning to his sister Naruto let a small smile show on his face as he looked at her.

He could never understand why she insisted on wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, if she ever wore it on a mission he was she it would get her killed but no matter what anyone told her she refused to get ride of it. Her hair done up in two pigtail on either side of the head and the whisker marks on the cheeks always looked so cute it was all he could do not to hug her.

"It was ok, so how are things in the academy?"

Sitting down on the floor so they could talk Madoka told him about how she was getting on in the ninja academy.

"Ok I guess I'm still the second in class behind Sasuke. But Iruka's lessons are so boring, why do I need to know about so much stuff to be a ninja."

That made him laugh, seems Iruka still had trouble keeping his students attention.

"Well at least you only have a few days left; you graduate at the end of the week."

"Oh yeh, who do you think my sensei will be?"

"I'm sure they'll be cool, but Kami pity them."

That comment got him a punch in the arm.

"Shut up!"

XXX

Naruto was stood in front of his father with the other jonnin. They had been called for a meeting to decide who would be a jonnin sensei for the newly graduated gennin and which team they would get.

"Alright you all know why were here so lets get it over with, those who want to put their names forward please do so know."

At his words several people stepped out from the group, Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma at the front of the group but what no one was expecting was for Naruto to be there with them.

"Naruto, you want to be a sensei?"

"Yes, I think it would be cool to teach."

Shrugging his shoulders Minato pulled out the folders containing the team placements and an hour later almost everything was decided except for one team that consisted of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Madoka Namikaze.

The problem was that both Naruto and Kakashi wanted to teach them.

"Naruto I understand that you want to protect your sister but you're still a new jonnin. I will be able to protect them better then you."

This had been Kakashi's argument for the last half an hour but Naruto would have none of it.

"I'll make you a deal, back off and let me take the team and I won't go to your house and freeze all your books."

They could all see the visible part of Kakashi's face go pale as he raised his hands in the air and waved them around franticly in the air.

"Just calm down Naruto, no need to do anything drastic, we can talk about this."

"Just agree that I get them and nothing bad will happen."

Turning to Minato, Kakashi practically yell in his face.

"Give him the team damit!"

XXX

As Madoka walked into the classroom she couldn't help but feel excited. It was her last day of the academy and after today she would never have to listen to another of Iruka's boring lectures again.

All around her the others that had passed were talking in excited voices, telling their friends how they were going to be the best, how they were going to save princesses and fight army's. They were the one's that would most likely die on their first real missions.

She could hear Ino and Sakura arguing about who was going to sit in the free seat next to Sasuke who was sat next to a wall leaving only one seat while said Uchiha's face was slightly pale at the thought of having either of them anywhere near him.

Taking pity her oldest friend the young Namikaze walked past the still arguing fangirls and took the empty seat next to Sasuke and getting a grateful look from the raven haired boy.

It took the two girls another 10 minutes of arguing before they realised she had taken the seat without them realising. After sending her heated looks that was supposed to be intimidating, which had the effect of Madoka trying not to laugh, they took the two empty seats directly behind them.

If it was anyone other then her they would probably have screamed at the top of their lungs until she moved before starting to argue again.

That was one of the first things she had 'taught' them when they started at the academy. If they tried to mess with her she would dye their skin green, hang them upside down off the academy roof and stuff their mouths full of feathers.

Needless to say, they learned to leave her alone and all it took was a paint bomb, 8 foot of rope and a chicken.

"So Sasuke-chan, excited to be finishing the Academy?"

"You said you'd stop calling me that!"

"Calling you what Sasuke-chan?"

Instead of answering his friend the young Uchiha turned away with an annoyed look on his face.

Laughing at the face her friend was making Madoka was about to say something when Iruka walked through the door and yelled at them to shut up.

"SIT DOWN, SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION!"

When the room was quite, Iruka continued.

"Good, first off I would like to congratulate you all on becoming ninja. It has been a long and hard road to get to this point and I am proud of you all. But remember this is only the first step. As of today you are all a part of the Will of Fire that keeps this village safe. I want you to know that even if I am no longer your teacher I will always be here for you if you need me."

When he was done with his speech the scar faced man walked over to his desk and took out a sheet of paper from one of his draws.

"I will now announce your teams, team 1 will be..."

"...Team 7 is Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno-"

Here Iruka, along with the rest of the class, were forced to cover their ears with their hands in an attempted to save their hearing. Madoka was trying not to laugh at the sight of Kiba rolling around on the ground and the blood draining from Sasuke face leaving him almost as pale as her brother.

"-and Madoka Namikaze"

At Iruka's words Sasuke and Sakura's moods did a 180. Sasuke got colure back in his face and Sakura got a depressed look on hers.

After that teams 8 and 10 were announced and Iruka told them their jonnin sensei would be coming to pick them up shortly.

Turning to the blonde girl next to him Sasuke decided to start a conversation while they waited.

"So who do you think will be our sensei?"

"Hmm, well your brother is in ANBU so it can't be him, probably Kakashi."

"Yeh, I guess your right."

They sat talking for about half an hour about anything that came to mind, not paying much attention when Sakura came and sat next to them.

By the time their sensei came to pick them up there were only team 7, 8 and 10 left.

When the three jonnin walked into the room they all stopped talking.

The first was a beautiful red eyed woman with long wild brown hair that wore what looked like a dress made out of bandages. She walked with a gracefulness that shouted that she was someone not to be messed with.

The second was a well built man with short black hair, a beard and wore the basic jonnin uniform. As he walked in they saw him light a cigarette and let out a deep sigh as he breathed in the toxic fumes.

The last to walk in got a few strange looks from several of the newly appointed gennin.

He looked the same age as them, maybe two or three years older. The top part of is face was covered by the hood of his grey hoodie and the bottom part of his face that could be seen showed pale white skin and dark blue lips. He walked with both hands in his pockets and even through he wore a large pair of brown leather boots he made no sound as he walked into the room and they could all see a dark blue sword handle sticking out over his left shoulder. The last thing they noticed, which was by far the strangest, was that every time he breathed a small cloud of air would come out of his mouth or nose.

Before anyone could say anything Madoka let out a squeal and jumped in the air, crashing straight into the hooded boy who was able to catch her just as she collided into him.

The other gennin in the room apart from Sasuke was shocked. In all the years they had been class mates; never had Madoka acted so much like... well... a girl.

Getting up from his seat Sasuke made his way down to the two and shook hands with the boy, showing to the rest of the room his pale hand and light blue fingernails.

Stood next to them Madoka was practically bouncing in excitement.

"I can't believe it Onii-san, you're our jonnin instructor! I thought we would get Kakashi, this is so cool!"

"He almost was, but it's cool, I threatened him that if he didn't let me take you I'd freeze his precious books so he could never open them again."

Finally having enough of not knowing what was going on, Kiba stood up.

"What the hells going on here, who is he and why is he even here. There's no way he's a jonnin, he looks almost the same age as us!"

Turning to look at the loud Inuzuka Naruto was about to answer when he was stopped by Kurenai.

"First of all you will show respect to your superiors. Second, think before you talk about something you know nothing about or it might get you killed in the future."

"It's ok Kurenai-san, to answer your questions yes I am a jonnin, my name is Naruto Namikaze. I'm Madoka's older brother, which if you had been paying attention you would have known. Team 7 please come with me to the roof."

With that Naruto turned and left the room followed by Madoka, who stuck her tongue out at Kiba as she left, Sasuke and a moment later Sakura.

XXX

When they were all at the roof Naruto had them sit down. For a moment he just stood there looking at them, not saying anything. When 5 minutes had pasted he nodded to himself and started talking.

"First things first, introductions, my name is Naruto Namikaze, I like training, my family, my friends and ice cream. I hate a certain man that I won't tell you about right now and my dream is to find that man."

When he was finished Naruto nodded his head for his sister to go next.

With a grin on her face Madoka introduced herself.

"My name is Madoka Namikaze; I like training, my family, especially my Onii-san, ramen and teasing Sasuke-chan." Here she sent a grin at Sasuke, who just huffed and turned away.

"I hate the man that took my Onii-san away when I was little, waiting for ramen to cook and people that judge you without knowing you first. Oh! And fangirls, I hate fangirls. My dream is to be the best ninja I can be to make my family proud and to one day become the greatest Hokage there has ever been."

Throughout her introduction, Madoka's grin only left her face when she spoke about hating the man that had taken Naruto away when he was little. That had brought a small smile to his face. She had been too young to fully understand at the time, but when she was older they had told her what had happened.

Nodding his head, Naruto looked to Sasuke and motioned for him to start.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha; I like training, my mother and Onii-san, my friends and playing Shogi. I hate my father and most of my family and my dreams are to help restore my clan and earn back the respect my family lost when they tried to take over the village."

Naruto remembered that night 4 years ago like it was yesterday. He had just become a chunnin and his family had gone out to celebrate. They were in the middle of their meal when a fire Jutsu had been sent at them from behind by one of the Uchiha. The man was dead before the smoke cleared.

After sending his mother off with Madoka to their home Naruto and his father had found his best friend Itachi fighting 4 other Uchiha's, including his father, in the middle of the street.

By the end of the night only three were left alive of the once proud clan, Itachi, his mother and his little brother Sasuke being the only ones that didn't join in the attack.

Shaking his head to clear it Naruto turned his eyes on the last member of his team who hadn't stopped blushing since Sasuke spoke about restoring his clan. Naruto was sure she didn't even hear what the young raven haired boy had said after that.

"Hey pinky it's your turn, start talking."

Tearing her eyes away from Sasuke, Sakura introduced her self.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, the best kunoichi in my class."

She didn't seem to notice the other two gennin snort at that.

"I like reading and Sasuke-kun; I hate Ino-pig and Madoka-baka and my dreams for the future... well."

At this point she sent a glance at Sasuke and let out a squeal, sending a shiver down the Uchiha's spine.

Naruto stared at the girl for a moment, not sure what to say until he came up with what seemed most appropriate.

"You're going to die the first time we step outside of the village."

The pink haired girl looked at Naruto with shock on her face but before she could ask what he meant Naruto continued.

"Be at training ground 7 at 6:30am tomorrow and don't be late. Stay cool till then."

Without saying another word Naruto disappeared in a swirl of wind and snow, leaving the three gennin on the roof.

XXX

The next morning the three gennin walked into training ground 7 just as the clock reached 6:30. The sun was only just starting to rise and the trees were casting shadows over the training ground as they made their way to the three logs set in the middle of the training grounds.

Sat on top of the middle post eating a bowl of ice cream was Naruto, who was making sure to watch everything the three genin were doing as they made their way over to him.

Sasuke looked tired but alert, being used to getting up early to train with his brother. Sakura was for all intent and purposes sleep walking, her hair a mess around her head and as soon as they got there she fell to the ground in a heap. And then there was Madoka, who looked wide awake and was running to the three wooden posts stuck in the ground.

They stood looking up at him for about 5 minutes as he continued to eat his ice cream and while they watched him Sakura, who was cranky as from having to get out of bed so early in the morning, was getting more and more frustrated.

"Will you stop eating so we can get on with whatever this is?"

Naruto showed no reaction to her words and kept eating like he hadn't heard her.

After another 5 minutes when he had finished his ice cream Naruto jumped down from the log and addressed his team.

"It's not cool to rush things, if you do your more likely to make a mistake."

Taking his hands out of his pockets Naruto made a few quick hand seals that the three gennin couldn't follow and spit three times on the ground in different places, the small spots of liquid let off a cool mist when they hit the ground.

"**Animate Ice Wolf Jutsu"**

Before they could ask what he was doing the three globs of spit stared to grow and mold themselves into shapes. Within second three large wolves made entirely out of pure ice were stood before them. Mouths open and snarling at them angrily and showing their sharp teeth.

Reaching into his pocket Naruto pulled out three small bells and tossed them to the wolves, which opened their mouths and swallowed them. They could still see the bells; the wolves' see-through body's giving them a clear view just before they ran away in three different dictions.

When he was sure they where gone, Naruto put a hand into his other pocket and pulled out a small egg timer. Turing to the three gennin as he set it the young jonnin told them what he wanted them to do.

"You have until the timer goes off to get the bells and the only way to get them is to destroy my wolves. If you don't have all three before the time runs out you will be sent back to the academy for another year of training."

Ignoring their protests, Naruto walked back to the log he had been sat on before and placed the egg timer on the ground. Turning back to the three, Naruto just stared at them for a moment before sighing.

"While your stood here complaining, your time is running out so I suggest to get to it."

With that the three gennin ran of into the trees.

XXX

**Before anyone asks, the reason Naruto's hair is white is because when they found him his body was still changing and as he got older his hair turned white.**

**For those wondering why Naruto likes ice cream when he is always cold, he is actually colder then the ice cream anyway so it doesn't make a difference.**

**I will not be bashing Sakura throughout the story; it just fits in at the moment with how her character is at the start. She will get better later on in the story.**

**I want to make it clear that I don't like bashing because I think it ruins perfectly good Fics when people pick on a character just because don't like them, if you don't like them make them better in your story.**

**Hope you liked it :)**

**R&R :)**


	3. Training is Hard

**Just a few things before I start.**

**The name Sub-Zero will only be used by Orochimaru and those that work for him.**

**I have decided to push the wave mission back a little; it will still be before the chunnin exam but I am having them do a mission or two before that. Unlike Kakashi, Naruto will be training team 7 before they go on an actual mission because, well as cool as he is, he sucks as a teacher.**

**Madoka dose know about Kyuubi but not how to control any of its chakra yet. That will come later.**

**As for anyone wondering if Naruto will be able to use the Rasengan, don't worry I have something very special in mind for that and I'm sure you will all love it. XD**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 3- Training is Hard

_July 3_

_The special room I have created to contain Sub-Zero has gone through a massive change. It appears that his prolonged presence in the sealed room has created a freezer like effect causing ice and mist to fill the room. It is nowhere as cold as he is, but given time I wonder if it could be. I have lost several more lab assistants in to Sub-Zero and have come to the conclusion that I can not trust others with handling him._

XXX

As the three gennin ran in the direction they saw one of the wolves ran in, they tried to come up with a plan.

"Can't Sasuke-kun just melt them with one his '**Fireball Jutsu**', I mean they are made of ice?"

Stopping in a small clearing to catch their breath, for Sakura's sake more then anything else, the young Uchiha turned to his pink haired teammate with a frown on his face.

"It won't work, Itachi trains with Naruto-sensei all the time. He told me once how he used a high level fire Jutsu to try and counter on of his ice Jutsu and it didn't work. It's not just ice, they will be charged with chakra and I don't know a strong enough fire Jutsu to use on them."

At his words Sakura started to get worried.

"Then how are we supposed to get the bells?"

"I have an idea"

Looking to Madoka, Sasuke and Sakura looked to her with hope in their eyes, if anyone would know how to get past one of her brothers Jutsu, it would be her.

"Nii-san told me once that when some of his Jutsu get hit with a lot of blunt force they start to fracture and weaken, if we can get them to creak, Sasukes **Fireball Jutsu** might work."

Nodding his head, Sasuke started to look around the small clearing they had stopped in. The trees weren't as big as the one's that surrounded Konoha but they weren't small either and the clearing itself couldn't be more then 20 foot.

Letting a small smile cross his face, Sasuke turned to the two girls.

"I think I have a plan"

XXX

Both Sasuke and Sakura saw the three Madoka running toward the clearing as fast as they, a snarling ice wolf on each of their heels as they made a mad dash to reach the clearing before they were caught.

They had been waiting for almost two hours for this; they had sent Madoka and her **Shadow clones** to lure the wolves to this very spot.

When they were about 50 meters away Madoka and her two clones moved so they were running side by side with the wolfs only a few feet behind them.

Crouching in one of the bushed at the edge of the clearing, Sasuke signalled Sakura, who was sat in a tree on the other side from him, to be ready. The young raven haired boy made the first few hand seal for his Jutsu before stopping on the last seal and waiting.

They watched the three Madoka run into the field and just as they reached the centre the two clones stopped and while the real one kept running.

The wolves were on then instantly; sinking their teeth into the clones and causing them to both explode in a cloud of white smoke.

The wolves stopped to look for the real Madoka and that was when Sakura used her kunai to cut the wire next to her.

The second she did this, the 4 largest trees at the edge of the clearing feel and landed on the wolves stood in the centre, and was followed by several small explosions that rocked the ground as the exploding notes they had placed on the trees activated.

They all held their breath as they waited for the smoke to clear, Sasuke making sure to hold the seal the whole time.

Just before the smoke cleared completely they heard something that made their harts feel heavy in their chests. With three loud howls, the wolves pushed what was left of the trees away from themselves as they stood and started to look around again as if nothing had ever happened.

The three gennin were about to give up when the tail fell off of one of the wolves. Looking closer, they let out sighs of relief. The wolves were covered in hair line cracks and small chips.

With a smile on his face, Sasuke finished his Jutsu.

"**Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!**"

The fire ball sped towards the wolves, growing more then large enough to swallow all three whole and hit them before any had time to move out of the way.

The clearing was filled with smoke for a second time and just like they did before, the gennin held their breaths as they listened to the slight hissing sound that came from where the ice creatures had been standing moments ago.

This time when the smoke cleared the three let out cheers.

Right where the wolves had been stood there was now nothing more then a large puddle. Walking over to it, the gennin started to look for the bells.

It was at this point their good moods fell.

With two bells in hand, they spent 5 minutes searching for the last one only to find a small blob of melted metal.

Looking to her two team mates with a worried look on her face, Madoka said what was on all their minds.

"Well shit, what the hell are we supposed to now?"

XXX

Naruto watched as his team walked back into the clearing with dejected looks on their faces.

He knew exactly what had happened, having followed them the whole time, but they didn't need to know that.

"So, did you get the bells?"

Reaching into her pocket, Madoka pulled out two bells and a small blob of metal.

"Well, not exactly"

Looking at the three gennin, Naruto let out a sigh that caused a large cloud of mist to escape his mouth.

"I see, not cool guys. But I tell you what, seeing as you get two... and a half, I'll let two of you pass and only send one of you back to the Academy. I'll even let you pick who goes."

His words were met with three shocked faces that quickly turned to anger. Walking up to her brother, Madoka put her face within inches of his and pocked her index finger into his chest.

"What the hell? That's not fair! We got those bells as a team, you can't just tell us to pick someone and leave them behind!"

Both Sasuke and Sakura nodded at her words as the young Uchiha stepped forwards.

"She's right, if one of us fails, we all do."

They stood there for a moment, no one saying another word as Madoka continued to stare at her brother.

Letting out another sigh, Naruto couldn't stop the gentle smile from spreading across his lips.

"Good answer, if you had said anything else I would have failed you all anyway. It's never cool to leave a friend behind. I guess this means I have to train you now huh?"

Stepping away from her brother in surprise, Madoka said the only thing she could think of.

"Say what?"

Chuckling at their faces, Naruto moved back to his log and sat down, motioning for the then to sit as well.

"Every new gennin team are given a test when they first graduate. This test is to assess whether or not you are truly ready to become ninja of the Leaf. It changes a little depending on the jonnin doing the test, but the idea is always to test teamwork. The bell that melted was made to melt the moment it left the ice."

Nodding their heads at his words, the three now official gennin got huge grins on their faces. Smiling at his new students, Naruto jumped of the log and started to walk away.

"Come on, I'll buy you guys lunch."

XXX

They ended up sat around a barbecue table in one of the Akimichi run restaurants.

They seemed to know Naruto because as soon as they walked through the door they was directed to a table at the back of the room and a young waitress came and gave him a bowl of ice cream with a blush on her face as she waited for their orders.

Sakura and Sasuke were a little surprised when their new sensei asked for sushi instead of meat and when he saw the way they were looking at him he explained.

"I can't eat hot food, my body is too cold and it the sudden heat hurts."

Sasuke seemed to except that and reached for a piece of beef, but Sakura wanted to know more.

"Why would hot food hurt, if your cold wouldn't it be better to eat something hot?"

"No, it's like how if you run wash your hands in hot water when their cold, it hurts if you warm them up to quickly, but I like ice cream and sushi anyway."

Nodding her head at that, Sakura picked up a piece of beef and tried to feed it to Sasuke, only for Madoka to lean over and eat it before sticking her tongue out at her playfully.

For the next few minutes the two argued while Sasuke and Naruto just ate their food and when he was done, Naruto let out another deep sigh, the usual cloud shooting out of his mouth as he did so.

"That was a good meal; well I guess I should tell you what I'm going to start teaching you."

Before he could say another word Madoka leapt over the table into the empty seat next t him and hug Naruto with all her strength.

"This is so cool, what are you going to teach us first, what-what-what-what?"

"You've been drinking those energy drinks again haven't you? Not cool, you know what they do to you."

Sending her brother a sheepish grin that said it all, Madoka sat back down and waited for him to talk.

"Kami help us all if you ever drink a cup of coffee, I guess the first thing to do is teach you tree and water walking, it should probably take about a month for you to learn both. Body conditioning is a must; I noticed you had trouble keeping up with your teammates Sakura, so you will need to put in a lot of work there."

Sakura blushed at that, she knew she wasn't as good at practical stuff as the rest of her class had been.

"Don't worry; I'll get you up to scratch in no time. Right so what else... I'll need to find someone to teach you some ninjutsu, but I have someone I mind for that. We'll have to take D-rank missions to."

The three gennin sat and listened to Naruto as he listed the things they would be doing, getting more and more excited.

"Oh, I just remembered, I need to get you all warm suits."

"Why Onii-san, what are they?"

"These cool bodysuits that will help keep you warm. We're a team now, which means you need to be able to fight with me. It wouldn't be good if you get to cold from my Jutsu, it could be a problem so I'll talk to the perv later and get him to sort something out."

After they finished with their meal Naruto told them to meet him back at training ground 7 the next day at 8:00m and that if they were late he would make them regret it.

XXX

They arrived at the training ground the next day right on time, and just like the day before, Naruto was sat on the middle log eating a bowl of ice cream.

They stood there waiting as he ate; knowing from yesterday that he wouldn't talk to them until he was finished. That was something he had told them when they had lunch, he wanted them to learn patience, something he said all ninja should have.

Finishing his ice cream, Naruto jumped down and without saying a word, lead them to the edge of the training ground to the trees.

"Alright, I assume you all know what the tree climbing exercise is?"

After he got three nods he continued.

"Cool, I don't have to explain it then. Now I suggest you start by lying down on the ground with your feet on the tree as you channel your chakra into them, but don't try to walking up it. Remember, it's not cool to rush things, too much and you'll be blown off but not enough and you won't stick. When you think you have a good grasp on how much you need to channel into your feet I want you to get a running start on your tree. When you can all reach the top we will move on to water walking."

More nods.

For the next hour and a half the three gennin lay on the ground with their feet on their respective trees. Madoka had tried several times to run up it, but each time she would be thrown off and Naruto would have her start again.

When they were coming to the two hour mark, Sakura stood up and ran at her tree, getting it the first time, which didn't surprise Naruto, what with her low reserves.

"Well done Sakura. Now I want you to keep running up and down the tree until you wear out you chakra reserves."

"What, why?"

"The reason you got the hang of it so quick is because you have so little chakra, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It happens a lot with kids from civilian families. By putting strain on your coils it helps them grow, if you keep doing this exercise for after about week it should almost double your reserves."

After that Sakura spent the next three hours running up and down the tree, wearing herself out and collapsing onto the ground when she had finished.

Sasuke had been able to get half way up his tree before being blown off and Madoka was still on the ground trying to figure out how much chakra to put into her feet.

Again this was about what he had been expecting.

After the tree walking exercise they had their lunch and Naruto lead them to the mission's office to get their first D-rank mission, or rather several. Naruto had decided that because D-ranks were basically chores, they should be able to get at least 5 done in about three hours.

By the end of the time Naruto had set them they had painted an old woman's fence, picked up groceries for a single mother, weeded the garden of a civilian council member that tired to set Naruto up on a date with his daughter, walked the Inuzuka clans dogs and helped dig up the rocks out of a field with a farmer and his two sons.

Needles to say Madoka and her clone were a godsend.

XXX

It went on like this for the next few weeks, they had moved on to water walking after the first week and a half, but other then that they kept to the same routine.

It wasn't until the first month had passed and they had all mastered water walking that it changed.

As the three gennin made their way to the posts that they always met their sensei at they noticed something was different.

Surrounding the training grounds was a thick white mist that stopped them from seeing more then a few feet ahead. Not sure what was going on they slowly made their way forward, not wanting to be late and have to go through one of Naruto's punishments.

He hadn't been kidding when he said he'd make them regret it, especially seeing as he would punishes them as a team. The first time Madoka had shown up late he had made them do 1000 push ups on the side of a tree.

As they made their way through the mist, Madoka realised that she was freezing, and after looking over to Sasuke and Sakura, she was able to confirm that it wasn't just her as they were both shivering.

The cold made the usual 20 meters it took to get to the logs in the centre of the training ground feel more like miles and by the time they got there none of them could feel their fingers.

"Cool right, this mist is one of my own creations. I got the idea from reading about the '**Hidden Mist Jutsu**', the cold saps the energy from your muscles, making it hard to move. If you spent too much time in here you would eventually fall asleep."

Jumping down from his post, Naruto got rid of the mist with a wave of his hand and turned to address his team.

"This is what I meant when I said you would have trouble fighting with me."

After waiting for the genin to stop shivering, Naruto sat them down and gave them each a bar of chocolate.

"Today we are moving on to the next step of your training. By the end of this month you will be able to fight in that mist just as good as you do without it."

Reaching around the log, Naruto brought out three packages wrapped in brown paper and tossed one to each of then before pointing towards two small tents set up to their right they hadn't noticed before because of the mist.

"Go change into these, you have 5 minutes."

Quickly getting up and heading towards the tents, the three gennin came back 5 minutes later wearing the new warm suits Naruto had asked Jiraiya to make.

Sasukes was a close fitting grey bodysuit with a high collar that could be pulled up over his faces like a mask and a hood at the back to cover his head. He had both of them worn down for the moment and Naruto could see a huge blush on his face as he looked at his two female teammates, or more spastically, Madoka.

Both the girls' suits were the same as Sasukes. A form fitting grey bodysuit with a high collar and hood, but theirs seemed to be several times tighter then his. It wasn't enough to restrict their movements, but the way they were clinging to their bodies in just the right ways to show off their developing bodies made them stand out more then they normally do. Both had equally large blushes on their faces as they made their way back to their sensei and Naruto was sure that if she wasn't so embarrass, Sakura would have been drawling at Sasuke.

After sighing and making a mental note to throw his godfather into the kunoichi bath house next time he saw him, the white haired Namikaze had them stand next to him as he went though the hand seals for the Jutsu.

"**Chilled Mist Jutsu**"

"From this moment on we will be having all our training sessions in this mist, which means you will wear those suits every time we meat for training. I will however, take to buy some clothes you can wear over them later this afternoon; I should have known that pervert would try something like this, not cool at all, but for now we will continue as normal."

He was about to start when Madoka asked a question that made him smile.

"But nii-san, we can't see anything. How are we supposed to train?"

Turning his smile to his sister, Naruto nodded to her and explained.

"That's a cool question Madoka, I was actually about to explain. You see the first part of this step in your training is to learn how to connect your chakra to the mist."

Getting a confused look on her face, Sakura asked the next question.

"But what good would that do?"

"My chakra is spread out throughout this mist right now; I know everything that is happening inside it, every animal, every bug, right down to the smallest blade of grass, it's not seeing exactly, more like sensing my surroundings."

The three gennin's eyes widened at that.

Nodding his head when he saw he had their attention, Naruto explained what they needed to do.

"Cool, the first thing I want you to do is sit down and mediate. Now that you all know tree and water walking you will have a better understanding of how your chakra moves inside your bodies. When you have a good grape of the flow, I want you to slowly push a little out of your body and let it mix with the mist around you. This technique is called '**Awareness'**, a very advanced chakra control exercise that a some friends an I created several years ago and when you are able to do it in the mist, we will move on to using it in the air around you. It won't be as strong as when you use it in the mist, but it will help you later on a great deal in your ninja careers. I'm going to be placing small stones around you all in circles a foot apart from each other, when you start to get the hang of it I want you to tell me how many circles you can feel so I know how far out you can go."

Doing as they were told, the three gennin got into meditative positions closed their eyes as they felt the chakra moving around inside of them.

It was about 15 minutes later that Madoka let off a large wave of chakra that, instead of mixing with the mist like it was supposed to pushed it away leaving her sat in a 10 foot wide circle clear of the mist that was swallowed back up in seconds.

"Good try Madoka, very cool for your first time. Try and make you chakra flow out of you instead of letting it burst out, control it and don't let it rush out."

Several minutes later Sakura spoke.

"I got it! I can feel 2 circles!"

"That's good Sakura, that means you have a distance of 2 feet already. Now I know it's hard but I want you to keep your chakra like that as long as you can. Just like with tree and water walking the more you use your chakra the larger your reserves will grow."

Nodding her head, the pink hair Kunoichi closed her eyes again and tried to keep it in place as long as she could.

By the end of their morning training Sakura could keep her '**Awareness**' up at 2 feet for 5 minutes at a time before she needed a break. Sasuke could keep his at 7 feet but could only use it for 34 seconds and Madoka was still having trouble letting her chakra out slow enough not to blow the mist away and have stop it from slipping out of her control the moment it left her body.

Instead of taking them to the mission office after lunch like he normally would, Naruto brought the three gennin to a small shop in the centre of town, getting more then a few appreciative looks and wolf whistles from the younger generation that was walking the streets as they passed.

When inside the shop they found it was a lot bigger then it looked room the outside. Row after row of weapon shelves ranging from kunai and shrunken to swords and bow staffs. They could even see a few non-standard weapons like bows and maces; they could even see a large battleaxe set in a display case next to the counter.

At the back of the store was a large selection of ninja clothes. Most were made of neutral colures much to Madoka's disappointment, the only exception being a few in red.

Walking up to the counter Naruto said a quick hello to the middle aged woman stood behind it before leading them to the clothes.

After spending an hour looking through different set of clothes, team 7 walked out of the store in their new gear.

Sakura now wore a dark green jacket that matched her eyes with a pair of bracers on her arms. She didn't buy any pants or shorts, deciding that the legs of the bodysuit were enough and liking the way they showed off her legs.

Sasuke had on a black leather jacket that he left undone so everyone could see the tight grey bodysuit underneath and white bandages wrapped around his hands and wrists.

And last but not last, Madoka. Like her team she had forgone buying a new pair of pants to cover her legs. She had taken a leaf from her bothers book and brought a zip up hoodie that she left undone, but instead of being grey like Naruto's, hers was a deep, almost brown shade of red.

After training in the suits for the whole morning and walking through the village in them in front of people they had gotten over their embarrassment at wearing the revealing clothes and decided to use them to their advantage. After all, it would be easier to fight someone if they spent more time looking at your body then paying attention to the fight.

Naruto was actually a little proud that they had come to this conclusion, even if he was slightly disturbed that it was his sister.

XXX

Another two months had passed and team 7 had just finished their first C-rank mission, delivering a scroll to one of the guard towers at the boarder of Fire and Wind country. It hadn't even taken them a day to complete and nothing had really happened.

For a first mission outside the village it wasn't too bad. The problem was what came next.

The three gennin had worked hard at training to use **Awareness** and had made good progress. Sakura still had a problem because of her small chakra reserves, but could know reach 15 feet in every direction and keep it up for 10 minutes at a time.

Sasuke had managed to reach 24 feet, but could only keep it going for 7 and a half minutes before having to stop and catch his breath.

But by far Madoka had made the most improvement. When she had gotten used to letting out her chakra slower the technique had come naturally to the young blonde. She could cover a space of 43 feet and keep it active for almost 20 minutes.

None of them had moved on to using **Awareness** outside the mist yet but they were getting better everyday. And it was for this reason Naruto decided it was time.

He had thought long and hard about when he was going to do it, what mission would be the best and when they would be ready. He had wanted to avoid it for as long as possible but knew that now they were doing C-rank missions it was only a matter of time and wanted it to be on _his_ turns, in a way _he_ was in control.

He had chosen the scroll delivery as their first time out of the village because he wanted it to be a good memory for them.

But tomorrow would be the day his gennin team were blooded.

Tomorrow would be the day they made their first kills.

XXX

**For those wondering why sakura isn't being a major fangirl it's because Naruto isn't giving her the time to be with all the training he is putting them through. The reason she is able to learn the start of the exercise so fast is the same as in the anime, her coils are small so her control it good.**


	4. First Time

**For those that asked if Naruto had insomnia, no he doesn't. The rings around his eyes are just because he is cold, like how his lips are blue.**

**Since so many of you are asking for it anyway I will tell you now that Samui is going to be the pairing in this fic. She will make her entrance at the chunnin exam and things will go from there.**

**Zabuza will most likely die, but I'm not sure yet, same with Haku. Also I will say this now, Haku will be a girl, in any fic I write Haku will always be a girl just because I say so :P**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 4- First Time

_March 4_

_I lost a lab assistant today. We were working on Sub-Zero when the boy grabbed onto his arm and froze him instantly, I don't know how this happened, but I will be sure to find out._

XXX

Team 7 were preparing themselves in a small clearing 2 miles away from the bandit camp. They didn't make a fire, the warm suits making it so that they didn't need the warmth and the mission rations Naruto had made them bring didn't need cooking so there was no need for one.

Naruto had told the three young gennin what the mission was as soon as they arrived at the clearing. And all three had been unnatural quite ever since. The implications of what they were about to do weighing heavily on their shoulders.

Naruto nodded his head and started to lead them towards the bandit camp. They could already here it from where they had been, the laughing and music of people in celebration. The large fire they had burning in the centre of a field they had set their tents in. But what got the three gennin's attention the most was that as they got closer they could hear the distinct sound of women's screams.

It was for this reason Naruto had chosen this particular group of bandits for his gennin's first kills. The group had been scouted out before hand and they knew that the bandits had been kidnapping women from around fire country.

The reason he had picked them was that he wanted his team to understand why they needed to kill them and what happens when they are left alone. He remembered what his father had told him the first time he killed on a mission. It hadn't been his first kill, but it had been the first time he meant killed on purpose.

"_Never wound what you could have killed, because they will just come back stronger_"

It was a simple saying that Naruto had lived by ever since. It was true that in the ninja world an enemy could become an ally at the drop of a hat, but when they were your enemy you did all you can to kill them, because if not they would come back and they would know just that little bit more needed to kill you.

As they got closer the three gennin lost their pale completion and adapted confused faces at the sounds of the women's screams, which changed the moment they arrived at the tree line to the field the bandits had made camp in from confused to looks of absolute fury.

They could see maybe 30 or 40 bandits in the camp, each with a naked women screaming for them to stop, begging them to leave them alone. Over to the side of the camp in the shadows set up out of reach from the warmth the large fire created was a cage, filled with around 40 women both young and old. None of them had clothes on and they were all shivering from the cold night air as several men on the outside of the bars stood luring at them, reaching into the cage and grabbing them and pulling them to the side of the cage.

Seeing how his gennin were reacting to the sight, and making a mental note to tell his father about how Madoka's eyes were shifting from blue to red, Naruto held up his hand to stop them from rushing in and when he saw three sets of angry eyes directed at him he explained.

"I want you to take a good look at what is happening right know, these men are not cool, they are less then animals and that is why we kill them. If we don't this is what happens."

He made them watch for another few minutes before retreating further back into the trees, the rest of his team following a moment later.

When they were a good distance away so that the bandits couldn't hear them, Naruto preformed a number of hand seals.

"**Animate Ice Wolf Pack Jutsu**"

Spiting several times on the ground, the three gennin watched as the wolves took shape, but unlike last time when Naruto had made three, now there were 20, all with large sharp teeth and deadly pointed claws.

Without waiting for orders the wolves spite up and disappeared into the woods. Turning back to his team Naruto explained.

"I've sent them to surround the camp, so if any try to escape they won't get far. Now the problem is I can't use the '**Chilled Mist Jutsu**' because of the women, so you'll have to go in with full visibility, but you're not ready to use your **Awareness** in combat yet so it ok."

When he was sure they understood, he gave them a small, sad smile and nodded his head.

XXX

Madoka was trying to be as quite as possible as she made her way around the camp to where the cage with the women was set. She, Sakura and Sasuke had split up so that they could attack from different positions around the camp.

It was her job to take care of the men around the cage and free the women while Sasuke and Sakura would attack the main. It as a job she was all too happy to perform.

But even though she wanted to kill these men for what they were doing, she couldn't stop her hands trembling and the sweat falling down her face at the thought of actually killing another human being raced around in her head. She could hear the whispers of the Kyuubi in the back of her head telling her do it, to run out there and rip out all of their throats, to dance in their blood and spit on there corpses. And for the first time in her life, Madoka was tempted to listens to the whispers.

She didn't even realise that her eyes had turned red and her teeth grew into fangs.

Slowly sneaking up to a man on the side of the cage furthest away from the light of the fire where no one could see him molesting a teenage girl though the bars. Madoka, with shaky hands, pulled out a kunai, closed her eyes and slit the man's throat form behind.

He made no sound as he choked on his own blood and fell to the floor, coughing and gurgling as he looked up at her with wide, fear filled eyes. And she watch, watched as his chest stopped moving, watched as his fearful eyes clouded over and saw no more, she watched as the man she killed died.

XXX

Sakura was terrified, her whole body shaking as she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do.

Right in front of her, with his back to the tree line was a large man with short brown hair and no shirt on. She could smell him from her position in the bushes several feet away, sweat, blood and sex. It was enough to make her feel sick.

Stepping out of the bushes, but making sure to stay in the man's shadow so as not to be seen, Sakura thrust her kunai into the bandits side right into his liver like she had been taught in he academy.

Tears falling down her face the whole time.

XXX

Sasuke was taking deep breathes as he hide in the corner of one of the smaller tents behind a pile of crates.

He had slipped in when no one was looking and found a man asleep on a pile of sheets with a naked woman with long, messy blonde hair chained to the post by a metal collar around her neck. She was covered in bruises and her eyes had a dead look to them.

His blood boiling at the sight of her, making him forget about hi nerviness, he made his way out from behind the crates with a kunai in his hand. Sasuke stopped above the man with his kunai in both hands and took a deep breath.

He could feel the dead eyes of the woman on him as he brought the knife down and stabbed it into the sleeping man's chest.

XXX

Everything moved quickly after that, having confirmed that they had made their first kills, Naruto had sent in a second pack of wolves to kill the bandits that were left. He didn't them to make more then one kill for their first time; it would be hard enough to deal with as it was.

The wolves descended on the bandits like a tsunami, rushing in a killing all they saw, leaving nothing but the women and the frozen gennin untouched as they proceeded to rip the men to pieces.

Naruto was fighting to stay out of the fight, fighting not to walking in and place his hands on the screaming men and drain them of all the heat in their bodies. It was a craving of his, the only time he could feel warm, those precious few seconds in which he could be warm. It was like a drug to him and he always had to remind himself of the price.

He didn't want them to see him like that, especially not Madoka.

Waiting until the last bandit had been killed so he wouldn't be tempted, Naruto stepped out of the shadows and walked over to his sister and pulled her into a hug. At first she showed no sign that he was their, eyes fixed on the dead body of the man on the ground at her feet.

And then the flood gates opened and she cried into his shoulder.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Naruto stepped back and handed her a scroll.

"We can talk later; right now these women need you. There should be enough clothes sealed in this scroll for all of them, make sure they get them."

Feeling slightly better now that she had something to do, Madoka made her way over to the cage door and started to pick the lock.

While she did that Naruto moved to comfort Sakura, who was still crying when he got there and after sending her off to help his sister moved to the tent he had seen Sasuke sneak into.

Just as he was about to enter, the young Uchiha came running out of the tent and puked on the ground at his feet, blood on his face from the man he had killed as his blood burst out of his chest. If the situation wasn't so serious, he would have laughed.

Bending down and patting the boy on the back, Naruto pulled out two scrolls and handed one to Sasuke, telling him to seal up anything of use.

XXX

After taking anything of value from the camp and clothing all the women, Naruto had Sasuke use a fire Jutsu to burn what was left of the camp and the bodies before moving to a different field and sending a few ice clones to bring them their supplies.

He wasn't surprised when the women flinched away from him and Sasuke whenever they came near them, after what they been through he would have been shocked if they didn't.

They made a fire in the middle of the camp they had set up and Naruto sent a message to Konoha to ask for someone to come and pick up the women, going into breath detail about what they had saw so they knew to send Kunoichi.

After making sure there were enough tents for the women, Naruto lead his team over to a smaller fire away from the main camp and had them sit down.

No one said anything; they just sat there in silence. Now that they had nothing to do the three genin found themselves thinking back to what they had done, the life's they had taken. Taking a deep breath, Naruto spoke.

"The first time I took a life for a mission I was 8 years old. My team and I were delivering a scroll to the border, it was a simple mission, nothing was supposed to happen, and then we were attacked. I don't know what his name was, or even what he looked like, all I remember is his blood hitting my face as I slammed my kunai into his chest."

At this point he reached into a small pouch on his hip and pulled out an old, chipped kunai with dried blood and rust on it.

"For the rest of the mission I didn't talk to anyone, nothing my sensei or teammate could say worked. I kept asking myself, why I killed him, why not just capture him, or scare him away. I saw his blood on my hands, but no matter what I did, it wouldn't wash off, it wasn't cool. When I got back to the village my sensei told my father what had happened and how I hadn't spoken since. After the mission breathing he took me to a room an held me for what felt like hours as I cried, asking and begging him to tell me why I had killed him. That was when he told me something that changed my life. He told me '_Never wound what you could have killed, because they will just come back stronger_'. I have lived my ninja career by those words ever since."

The three gennin had been captivated by his words the whole time, eyes fixed on the Kunai in his hands as they listening to everything he said like it was a life line, which at this moment it probably was. Now they understood why he had brought them here, why he had made them make their first kills so soon when other teams probably wouldn't until their first year had pasted. It was to protect them.

Thinking about what he had said, none of them were sure how they would have reacted if their first kill had been like his, unprepared, without knowing that it was going to happen. At least they had had time to prepare themselves. He wanted them to do this at a time he could help them, to make sure they got through it and so he could be there for them.

Naruto had bee prepared for many reaction, shouting, crying, even violence. He expected them to hate him for what he had made them do.

What he wasn't expecting was for Madoka to come over and hug him with all her might, or the words she whispered into his ears as fresh tears started to fall from her eyes.

"Thank you"

XXX

They stayed with the women for two for 2 days before their backup arrived with wagons to transport them to Konoha, with another 2 days to get back.

Looking after the women had done the three gennin the world of good, it reminded them why they had done what they had done. Sasuke made sure to keep his distance, mostly hunting in the forest for food and water while the girls comforted the women.

Naruto had talked to the three teens individually throughout their stay, getting them to tell him what had happened and offering advice where needed.

The moment they arrived in Konoha, Naruto had taken them to the Hokage office where as soon as they stepped through the door they were grabbed by their parents, and in Sasukes case brother as well, and pulled into the biggest hugs they had ever gotten.

Naruto stood off to the side with his family, trying not to laugh as Kushina started to choke his sister and wouldn't let go until she almost passed out.

He returned the nod and smile Itachi had sent his way over his brother's head and shuck hands with the Haruno's when they came over to thank him for looking out for their daughter.

When they were done Sasuke and Sakura went home with their families while Madoka with went to get ramen with their mother while Naruto stayed and gave his report, making sure to tell them that they had two days off from training before they left.

Turning to his father, the young Namikaze adapted a serious expression as he stood at attention.

"I trust everything went as planned?"

"It's cool, they did what was needed and I finished off the rest."

"I trust you didn't... indulge in your craving while they were around."

"No, I had my wolves do it , but I will need to go on a solo mission soon."

"I see, I was afraid this might be the case so I set aside a mission for you, it's only a small camp, but it should be enough, you can collect the scroll from the mission's office right away."

Naruto just nodded his head.

Minato smiled sadly at his son, he knew it was hard for him and the longer he waited the harder it got for him to resist. He was about to get back to his paperwork when Naruto spoke again.

"Madoka needs to start her training to control the Kyuubi's chakra as soon as possible."

"...What happened?"

"Nothing... this time, her eyes went red and her teeth grew, I don't think she noticed but it wouldn't be cool if she lost control."

Nodding his head in thought, the blonde Hokage let out a sigh.

"I had hoped we wouldn't have to do this so soon, but your right. I will have your mother start her training as soon as she can. I can write it off as a mission so that she doesn't have to leave the village for a while, I'm sure she'd like that."

Again Naruto just nodded his head at his father before tuning to collect his mission scroll.

XXX

Naruto had finished the mission before it was even dark and was back in the village just as the sun was setting.

There had only been about twenty bandits, none of them trained in any way, shape or form. He had walked through their camp and none of them had even noticed he was there until it was too late.

When he got home Madoka had already go to sleep and his father was home.

They didn't say anything as he walked into the living room, they didn't need to. Kushina just stood up from her seat and hugged him, not in her usual bone crushing way, but softly, like she was trying to show him how much she loved him just through that one act.

She did this every time he came home from one of _these _missions, her and his father would stay up and wait for him to come home just so they could make sure he was alright.

XXX

When team 7 next met at the training ground for their first training since they made their first kills and made their way through the mist, they were surprised to see Naruto, with his traditional bowl of ice cream in hand, wasn't alone. Sat on the log to his left eating a stick of pocky, was Itachi. They stood there, waiting for the two elate ninja sat in front of them to finish their respective treats, looks of confusion on their faces.

Letting out sighs and jumping of their logs, creeping out the gennin slightly at the fact they did it in perfect sink, Naruto made his over to his students with a small smile on his face.

"You should close your mouths; it wouldn't be cool if birds made nest in them."

Walking and standing next to his friend, Itachi adapted a smile that, once again, scared the gennin because of how similar it looked to the one Naruto was giving them.

"That true, you wouldn't want to get feathers in your mouths."

After another 5 minutes of the three young ninja starring at them, Madoka summed up what they were thinking.

"What the hell?"

At her words Itachi started laughing his head off while Naruto chuckled; the looks on their faces were just too much.

"Remember I told you I would get someone to teach you all ninjutsu? Well here he is."

It was at this point Sasuke realised that Itachi was in the mist.

"Hey, wait a minute why aren't you shivering nii-san"

Smiling at his brother, the older Uchiha flicked his brother in the forehead playful before lifted up his black shirt to reveal a tight, grey bodysuit.

"I train with Naruto all the time, hell me and Tenzou helped him create **Awareness**."

"That was you?"

"Why did you think I could hit a target without even seeing it? The three of us used to go on missions together all the time before he became a jonnin sensei, isn't that right Jacky-boy."

It was at this point that Itachi put his arm around Narutos head and pulled him into a headlock.

"Not cool Crow, let me go before I freeze you ass off."

"You say that every time, yet it's still there, as perfect as the day I was born."

After another 5 minutes of Naruto grumbling about how he was going to hit Itachi with something big and heavy, the oldest living Uchiha let his friend go and introduced himself to the group.

"I'm Itachi, in the Bingo book I'm known as the 'Black Crow', I like my mother and brother, my friends and pocky. I hate stuff I guess, but I can't be bothered to list them. I don't really have a dream other then to rebuild my clan but I have made a hobby of trying to set Jacky-boy here up with random women by telling them he likes them."

"Is that way the waitresses at the barbeque house keep giving me their numbers? Not cool man, the other day one spilled coffee in my laps just so she could wipe it off."

That brought a large grin to the raven haired ANBU captains face.

Having enough, Madoka hit them both on the back of the head in a very Kushina like style.

"Questions, what the hell is a Bingo book and why do you keep calling my Onii-san Jacky-boy?"

Turing to Naruto, Itachi let a confused look cross his face.

"You didn't tell them?"

"I just never got round to it."

Shaking his head, Itachi pulled out a small book from his back pocket and flipped through it till he came to the pages he was looking for.

"The Bingo book contains info on all ninja from the hidden villages that are worth knowing about, here look."

Passing the book to Madoka so she and the rest of team 7 could read it, Itachi watched with a smile on his face as he saw the looks on their faces.

XXX

_The Konoha Three, a team of ninja from Konoha consisting of Tenzou Yamato (AKA the Forest Ranger), Itachi Uchiha (AKA the Black Crow) and Naruto Namikaze (AKA Jack Frost), for more information see following pages._

_The Konoha Three, after their defeat of Raiga Kurosuki, former Seven Swordsman of the Bloody Mist, during a lightning storm, have been on the short-list for being the next sannin for several years. With there spotless recorded, a rarity for any ninja, and overweling strentgh when working as a team, they have all been given flee on site orders when together._

XXX

_Name: Tenzou Yamato_

_Age: 23_

_Alias: The Forest Ranger_

_Affiliation: Konoha_

_Rank: S-class_

_Specialty: Wood Style_

_Tenzou Yamato, one third of the infamous 'Konoha Three', is known to posses the rare Wood Style Jutsu. Extremely dangerous._

XXX

_Name: Itachi Uchiha_

_Age: 19_

_Alias: Black Crow_

_Affiliation: Konoha_

_Rank: S-class_

_Specialty: Genjutsu master, posses the Sharingan_

_Itachi Uchiha, one third of the infamous 'Konoha Three', possesses fully matured Sharingan and master of Genjutsu. Extremely dangerous._

XXX

_Name: Naruto Namikaze_

_Age: 15_

_Alias: Jack Frost_

_Affiliation: Konoha_

_Rank: S-class_

_Specialty: Ice style and kenjutsu_

_Naruto Namikaze, one third of the infamous 'Konoha Three' son of Minato Namikaze, fourth Hokage and the Yellow Flash of Konoha, possessor of Ice Bloodline and master swordsman. Extremely dangerous._

XXX

With each entry there was a picture, one was Tenzou Yamato, with a shadow across his face making him look scary, one was Itachi with a smile on his face while giving the piece sign to the camera and the last was of Naruto, deep blue eyes glowing slightly from the shadows casted over his face from his hood.

Looking over the three gennin's shoulders at the pictures, Itachi laughed.

"They get the photos from the village files, I love that picture."

"It makes you look like an idiot, what's cool about that?"

"Oh please, I get girl coming up to me all the time asking me to sign that picture. It's a great picture."

The three gennin looked at their sensei in shock, none of them knew he was _that_ good, not even Madoka.

XXX

Over the next month team 7 went on several more C-rank missions, none of which had anything to do with killing. They continued their training, but now instead of just training their bodies and **Awareness**, they also trained with Itachi in ninjutsu three times a week, much to Sasukes joy.

The exception to this being Sakura.

She didn't have enough chakra to perform the more taxing Jutsu, and although she was smart and had good control, she didn't have the imagination to use Genjutsu.

It was for this reason Naruto had gotten her a placement in the Konoha Med-nin program at the hospital.

It seemed Tsunade had taken quite an interest in the young pink haired girl and had taken her under her wing much like she had Shizune.

They were half way through the next month when, while in the middle of training, Itachi showed up with a serious face.

"You need to come with me now; Hokage-sama is sending the 5 of us as backup for team 8. They were sent a C-rank when they ran into Momochi Zabuza; the mission has been bumped up to A-rank."

"Cool, the _5_ of us?"

At that Itachi grinned.

"Yep, I'm coming with you."

XXX

**Yes I know I made Itachi different, but remember in this fic he didn't leave the village and he still has his mother and brother without his bastard of a dad there as well so I made him fun, live with it :P**

**R&R :)**


	5. A Beautiful Death

**Just a few things.**

**I agree that I have overused the word cool and, although he will still say it sometimes, it won't be all the time anymore and will probably go back to get rid of a few of the one's already in the first 4 chapters. For that thought his training methods are off, it's still early in their training and when they get uses to using **_**Awareness**_** inside the mist he will teach them how to use it outside. **After** the Wave mission he will also change a few things so be patient.**

**For those wondering about the bandit camp where they made their first kills, sorry if I was a bit vague on details. The reason they had so many women is that they had been taking them from all over the elemental nations and had only been in fire country a short time and the reason they didn't care about ninja was because they were arrogant because they hadn't been caught before. The reason Naruto took them to see such a big camp was that he wanted to shock them by showing them what happens when they leave them alone and don't kill them.**

**Hope that clears some things up. :)**

**For those wondering why Minato would send team 7 on a A-rank mission as back up it's because he needed to send someone quick and most of his other Ninja were on missions, which is why he sent Itachi with them.**

**After reading your reviews I agree that the 'flee on sight' order was a bit much and have gone back and changed it to it only applies when the tree of them are together. I also changed Itachi's age to 19 instead of 15.**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 5- A Beautiful Death 

_January 12_

_The effects of formula 19 are starting to show in Sub-Zeros development, I have been able to analyse his muscular tissue along with skeletal structure and have noticed that they are already twice as strong as a normal three year old. I am curious to see if they will continue to improve as he grows or if my formula has already done everything it can. As it is he will be twice as strong as any other his age and if formula 19 continues to do its job, this will likely increase tenfold._

XXX

The trip to Wave took the rest of the day to get to and throughout the trip Itachi would tell stories about when he, Naruto and Tenzou were on missions together. This wouldn't have been so bad if he was telling them things like when they fought Raiga or one of the countless bandit camps they had destroyed. But no, that would make his life easier.

"So we're in this bar near the Hidden Rock village full of ninja, all of whom hate our guts, when I get Jacky-boy here pissed. So I figured, what would be the smart thing to do, quietly leave the bar and get away, or tell the biggest guy in the bar that he was hitting on his girlfriend. Me and Tenzou were outside before he even realised the guy was about to hit him."

They could all hear Naruto grumbling under his breath at this point.

"And that's not all; we went back in 15 minutes later to find him singing and dancing the YMCA on top of a table with 3 other guys, including the one we got him in a fight with, hahaha!"

It had been like this ever since they left the village, the older Uchiha telling them story after story just like this one.

"And that's not the best part, because it was actually me that had been hitting on his girlfriend."

The three gennin were laughing their heads off with Itachi at their sensei expense, Madoka making a mental note to tell their parents when they got home.

If it wasn't for the fact they had been water walking for the last hour, they would have being rolling around on the ground.

Deciding to shut his friend up, and get a little payback, Naruto turned to Itachi with a small evil smile on his face that had Itachi on alert the moment he saw it.

"Not cool, you should be carful what you say Crow, or I might be tempted to tell a few stories of my own."

Itachi took on a thinking look for a moment before grinning at his friend.

"Go ahead, you got nothing on me."

"Really, what about that lovely woman we met in Wind country, the one with the big hands and giant adam's apple. What was his name again?"

Itachi's face went almost as white as Narutos.

"You said you'd never tell anyone!"

"Oopes, must have slipped my mind"

XXX

The rest of the trip was spent in silence, other then the still laughing gennin. Itachi had been reminded that Naruto had just as much dirt to through as he did and Naruto felt no reason to say anything else.

They arrive in Wave almost an hour later, in the gennin's case, Madoka being the exception, tired and in need of a brake. Running on water for two hours straight was tiring to the best of gennin.

After stopping for ten minutes so they could catch their breath, they made their way through the forest that surrounded the small island.

Within 5 minutes they had arrived at the village of Wave.

The buildings were filthy, people lying in the street that looked so fin you could see their rib cages through the torn and messy clothes they wore. Kids sat at the side of the roads begging for food with drawn faces and weak voices. Shops were boarded up and the one food stand they saw had nothing but mouldy bread and rotten vegetables.

After a while they were able to find someone that could tell them where to find Tazuna and their fellow Leaf-nin and made their way to an old house about ten minutes away from the village next to a large lake.

By the time they got there the sun was down and the moon was high in the sky.

It wasn't in the best of conditions, the walls were rotten and the roof had several small holes in it, but it wasn't the worst they had seen.

Instead of walking up to the door and knocking, Naruto and Itachi stopped them about ten feet away from the house while Itachi raised his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly.

The three gennin watched with confusion as the house seemed to shimmer in the air for a moment before disappearing completely, only to reappear several meters to the right of where it had been before.

As soon as it had appeared completely the door opened to reveal a tired looking Kurenai and the rest of her team.

"It's about time you got here."

"Give us a brake; we didn't know where to find the house."

Nodding her head, the red eyed jonnin motioned for them all to come in and after a quick introduction to Tazuna, who made a comment about more brats, his daughter Tsunami, who hit her father in the head with a frying pan that appeared in her hand as if by magic, scaring the boys half to death, and a young boy named Inari that said nothing and just glared at them all.

Itachi, Naruto and Kurenai were now sat in the small living room, the gennin having been sent to rest so they would be ready for the next day and Tazuna's family following soon after.

Tuning to the red eyed beauty, Itachi smiled and nodded at her to tell them what happened.

"Well it started off like a normal mission, but about a third of the way here we were attacked by the Demon Brothers of the Mist. They were easy enough to handle and I got a good bit of information from them. That's how we found out about Gato. He's a bastered that has Wave country by the throat because he owns all the shipping contracts. If Tazuna were to finish his bridge it would be the end of his rule."

She stopped at this point to see their reactions, which was for both of them to nod and waited for her to continue.

"We decided to continue, though I was a little reluctant we couldn't just leave these people here to die and there was no time to turn back and get more help. I had hoped that the Demon Brothers would be the worst of our problems. Then, just as we got to Wave, we were attacked by Zabuza. He used the **Hidden Mist Jutsu** to catch us off guard and before I knew what was happening he caught me in a **Water Prison Jutsu**. If it wasn't for Shino I would have died. He managed to get one of his female bugs on Zabuza when he thinned out the mist to show them he caught me to try and to scare them. He was forced to release the Jutsu to avoid the swarm sent at him and I was able to cast a Genjutsu before he recovered. I was about to finish him off when a Hunter-nin came and killed him with several senbon to the neck, at least I thought he did."

"What do you mean?"

"He didn't destroy the body; he took it with him, No Hunter-nin, unless under direct conflict, would ever take a body away from the kill spot."

Nodding his head in agreement, Itachi turned to his white haired friend to see what he thought of the situation.

"The Hunter-nin was obviously a fake; they were most likely Zabuza's partner and used the needles to put him in a near death state so they could retreat. It takes on average three days and nights to recover from the strain a near death state puts on the body so we can assume he will make his next appearance within the next two or three days. His partner is skilled, they would have to be to use senbon with such accuracy and Zabuza trust them with his life, if the needles had been a millimetre off in any direction they would kill him."

Kurenai was looking at the young jonnin with wide eyes while Itachi just sat there nodding his head. She had never actually worked with Naruto before, Itachi a few times, but not Naruto and had assumed his profile in the Bingo book had been exaggerated because of his connection to Tenzou and Itachi. But here he was, breaking down the mission in a way she had only ever seen the most seasoned ninja do before.

It was a humbling experience to say the least.

She was soon broken out of her musings by Naruto.

"How far along are you're gennin in their training?"

"Well, they know tree and water walking, and their teamwork is amazing, but they are all from clans and I am restricted in what I can teach them at this stage. Shino is a prodigy in using his clan's bugs, and Kiba is average in his clan's style. Hinata could be good, but lacks confidence to use what she knows to its full potential."

Nodding his head in thought, Naruto said nothing for a few minutes before he spoke again.

"It will have to do. We don't have time to train them in anything else and if we tried it could tire them out, which would be counterproductive at this stage. From what you have told us of this... Gato, he will most likely be sending someone after Tazunas daughter and grandson at some point in the near future as insurance. If you don't mind, I think it would be best if your gennin stayed to guard the house while my gennin guards Tazuna. If Zabuza and his accomplice attack you and Itachi can take the Hunter-nin while I fight Zabuza"

"Why fight Zabuza on your own, we should have at least two of us take him on while the other deals with the fake Hunter-nin."

Shaking his head, Naruto nodded to Itachi to explain.

"That's where you're wrong. We know a grate deal about Zabuza and next to nothing about the Fake Hunter-nin. For all we know they could be stronger then he is, and if not it means we can finish him off quickly and then move to help Naruto."

Kurenai couldn't stop the blush that crossed her face, they were right and she had made a basic mistake, a mistake that could have cost someone their life.

Seeing the saddened face she wore when she realised what might have happened, Itachi gave her a soft smile.

"It's late, you've been in a life threatening battle and you were worried about your team, it's understandable that you might make a mistake under those conditions, I know I would. Go get some rest and we will take the night watch."

Smiling her thanks at the two, Kurenai bid them goodnight and went to get some sleep.

When he was sure she was gone, Itachi turned to Naruto with a huge grin on his face

"Think I've got a shot?"

"She's too cool for you, the moment you start flirting with her she'll have your nuts off."

XXX

The next day found Itachi, Kurenai, Naruto and his team at the bridge guarding Tazuna. Team 8 had stayed at the house to protect Tsunami and her son Inari, much to Kiba's frustration.

They had just seen a man quit, and by the expression on Tazuna's face he wasn't the first and probably wouldn't be the last. Letting out a sigh, Naruto got up from his spot on the bridge and made his way over to a group of five men that were struggling to move a large metal beam that looked to be about 15 foot long.

Shaking his head at the strained looks on the men's faces as they moved inches at a time, the young jonnin reached around the middle of the beam and lifted it out of their hand and placing it over his shoulder before asking them where it needed to go.

The men stared at him for a moment, looks of complete shock on their faces as they pointed to the spot they needed the beam.

After putting it down where they asked, Naruto turned to his sister.

"Madoka, make a few shadow clones to help with the labour, but not too many I don't want you to tire yourself out."

Nodding her head the blonde put her hands into a cross seal and made 40 shadow clones. Tazuna and hi men looked at all the clones for a moment before the old man wiped the tears that had gathered in his eyes away and yelling at the men to get back to work.

With the clones and Naruto helping out with all the menial jobs the workers were able to get twice as much work done as they did the day before. Tazuna hadn't stopped thanking them the whole way back to his house and it was starting to get on all their nerves.

That night Tsunami made them all dinner, it wasn't much, but the gesture was appreciated none the less.

Tazuna was just telling them about how with the two Namikaze's help they could get the bridge done within two weeks when Inari started shouting at them all.

"Why even bother, it's not going to change anything! Gato will just kill you all, he's too strong!"

They ninja all looked at he small boy with raised eyebrows for a moment before Itachi smiled.

"Don't worry about it; some rich little prick is no match for us."

"Shut up, why are you even here, what do you know about what we've been through! You've all lived pampered lives in your village while we had to suffer. What do you know of pain!"

At his words the room went deadly quintet and the temperature dropped drastically. Ice started to creep onto the windows and they could all see their own breaths in front of their faces.

Turing to Naruto with wide eyes, they saw he was just sitting there like nothing was happening, his eyes completely shadowed by his hood. Standing up slowly, he raised his hands and pulled his hood away from his head, causing several gasps to be heard around the table. The only ones that weren't starring at him in shock being Madoka and Itachi, having seen this happen before.

His skin had turned light blue and his lips along with the rings around his eyes darkened, his face set into an expressionless mask as he looked the young boy in his eyes, his pure white hair seeming to glow slightly. But the most shocking thing was his eyes.

Where there had once been a pair of deep blue pool with white swirls swimming in their depths was now nothing but pure white voids with two small black dots in the middles, staring out at them with nothing but indifference.

He didn't say anything, just turned towards the door and left, pulling his hood back over his head as he went.

Just as Sasuke and Sakura got up to follow him they were stopped be Itachi.

"Leave him; he needs to be alone for a while."

XXX

Early the next morning Haku was making her way through the forests of Wave to a small clearing she had knew that had a verity of herbs that could be used for all shorts of things. She had found it the day before last but didn't have her basket so she decided to go now while she had the time.

But as she walked through the trees Haku noticed something odd. It was the middle of the summer, the sun was out and she could feel the warmth from it on her back through her kimono. So why was there ice on the trees?

Walking forwards Haku was shocked to find the grass underneath her feet give way to crisp white snow. It was like she had walked from one season straight into another without any kind of warning.

Slowing her pace as she came to her destination, the young ice user stopped in her tracks at the sight of a young boy sat in the middle of the clearing wearing a grey hoodie with the hood up and both his hands in his pockets surrounded by snow and ice. At first she was worried because she couldn't him moving, but as she got closer Haku saw his deep, rivmic breathing that told her he was asleep.

As she got closer her eyes were able to pick out more details about him, like the pale skin and blue lips. Forgetting caution, Haku ran the rest of the way over to the boy only to stop when she saw the Leaf forehead protector tied to his arm.

Before she could do anything the boy turned his head towards her, keeping his head down so she couldn't see his eyes.

"You know it's not cool to wake someone up when they are trying to sleep."

Quickly putting on her mask of ignorance she wore when dealing with people that didn't know her, Haku let a worried expression onto her face as she knelt down next to him.

"Are you ok, you shouldn't be sleeping outside, maybe you should go home, you look really pale and your lips are blue."

Even though she couldn't see it Haku was sure the boy had just raised his eyebrows at her.

"Not that I don't appreciate your concern, but are you really in any position to talk? You're almost as pale as I am."

Before she could answer Naruto's eyes drifted to the basket under her arm, along with the few herbs she had picked up on her way.

"I know those herbs, their used to help muscles relax."

Getting more and more worried all the time that he wasn't responding to her mask like all other before him, she seized the moment.

"That right, their for my friend. How did you know that?"

"My god mother is a Med-nin; I picked up a few things. Never know when you might need to what herbs will come in handy."

Nodding her head with a smile on her face, Haku looked around the snow covered clearing before letting out a breath.

"I was hoping to find some more here, I saw them the other day. But I don't think they will still be here now."

Neither of them said anything for a moment, just sitting on the ground in the snow.

"I'm Haku"

"Naruto"

"You're a ninja right, why do you fight?"

Naruto sighed getting Haku's attention when she saw a cloud of mist come out, not even truning to look at her.

"I fight for my family"

"That a good reason, you must be strong"

He still didn't look at her, but by the way his head turned slightly, Haku knew she had his attention.

"I believe that when you fight for someone you care about, with all your heart, is when you can reach true strength."

"You have a have an interesting belief, epically considering who you fight for."

At his words Haku felt alarm bells going off in her head and unconsciously reached for the senbon in her sleeve.

"I'm not sure I know what you mean, Naruto-san"

Still not looking at her, Naruto took his right hand out of his pocket and slowly brought it up in front of his face. Haku was yet again surprised to see pale skin, along with sharp blue fingernails.

"I have met many cool people in my time, both good and bad; you are one hell of an actor by the way, and if there is one thing I have learnt, never trust someone you don't know that is so good at hiding their chakra, how is Zabuza's recovery going?"

Just as she was about to put some distance between her and Naruto, Haku felt an ice cold hand wrap around her wrist. There was a slight burning sensation, but otherwise nothing seemed to happen and she was able to break his hold on her wrist before jumping back.

Speeding through hand seals, Haku used the snow and ice on the ground to her advantage and with a hard stomp, forced several large spikes made out of ice to shoot out of the ground, pinning the still seated Naruto in place.

He didn't even flinch.

"So your from the Yuki clan, that's cool, I guess that makes sense. You're lucky; if you were anyone else you would be dead by now."

Pushing his words aside for later along with the shock that he knew her clan, Haku walked over to the Leaf-nin, confident that her ice would hold him in place and held the three senbon in her hand against his throat.

"What gave me away?"

"The way you walked into the clearing, the herbs you had in your basket, all pointed to it. But the clincher was when you reached into your sleeve. "

"I see... how did you know I was from the Yuki clan?"

Instead of answering Naruto gestured behind her, a small smile on his face.

Turning to look at what he was indicating Haku let out a gasped. Coming out of the tree line behind her, teeth beared into angry snarls was ten wolves made out of pure ice.

"Stalemate"

Turing back to Naruto with a look of wonder on her face and tears in her eyes, Haku pulled her senbon away from his neck at the same time the wolves fell to the ground into piles of ice.

"You're of the Yuki clan to?"

"Not exactly, like I said you're lucky, if you were anyone else you'd have frozen solid the second I touched you."

That brought a confused look to Haku's face, she had never heard of someone doing anything like that.

"I don't understand, if your not part of my clan how can you use **Ice Style Jutsu**?"

"It's a long story for another time, lets just say for now that I was forcibly adopted into your clan and leave it at that."

Reluctantly accepted his answer, for now at least, Haku sat down, being sure to keep her distance this time.

"What know?"

"Why don't you tell me why you're with a man like Zabuza?"

Looking down at the ground, Haku told him about what had happened with her parents and how Zabuza took her in when no one else would.

"I owe him my life; I will help him make his dream come true, even at the cost of my own life."

"I see, that's unfortunate..."

Standing up and knocking the spikes away as if the spikes weren't even there, Naruto finally looked Haku in the eyes, blue and white meeting black.

"I know nothing I say will change your mind so I won't try to. But I will ask you this, after he has reached whatever his dream is, what then?"

Without waiting for an answer, Naruto turned and walked away. It wasn't until he was almost at the bridge that he realise he had just broken his code.

He had let Haku live.

XXX

That day went like the one before it, Naruto and Madoka helped where they could at the bridge and when they were done they went back to Tazuna's house.

Naruto noticed that Inari was keeping his distance from him, not that he minded, and when all the others had gone to bed Naruto told his fellow jonnin about his meeting with Haku and like always, Itachi managed to some it up in only three words.

"That sucks man"

Nodding his head, Naruto leaned back in the chair he was sat on and looked at the two in front of him, both with looks of concern on their faces.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Nothing, the plan stays the same. Nothing has changed."

"Bull shit"

Raising an eyebrow at his friend, Naruto waited for him to continue.

"I've known you for 8 years, 6 of which you were a ninja, you are like a brother to me and I have never seen you let someone walk away. That girl is practically family to you and no matter how hard you try to act the cold hearted bastard, I know you."

"What would you have me do? She's with Zabuza; nothing I do is going to change that."

He didn't have an answer for that, none of them did.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto got to his feet and walked out the room, but not before saying.

"When you fight her, I expect you both you to do everything in your power to kill her. Don't go easy on her for my sake."

When he was out of the room, Kurenai turned to Itachi with a worried look.

"What are we going to do?"

"I know one thing for sure, when we fight her, I'm going to do everything I can to keep her alive."

XXX

It was two days later when they came to the bridge to find it covered in mist and the workers nowhere to be found. Doing exactly what they had planned, team 7 moved to protect Tazuna, **Awareness** ready and kunai drawn, while the jonnin prepared for what was to come.

They didn't have to wait long.

"I see you got yourself some knew kids Kurenai-san, what happened to your old ones, did I scare them off?"

"These aren't mine"

They could hear chuckling echoing all around them in the mist. He was trying to scare them, but unfortunately for him Naruto and Itachi knew exactly where he was and Zabuza realised that when he saw them following him through the mist with their eyes.

The mist started to thin out until they could clearly see the two figures in front of them, one small and feminine and the other big and bulky.

"Well what do we have here, Konoha's very own Jack Frost and Black Crow, I'm honoured. When Haku told me you were here I was a bit sceptical, but there you are."

Without saying a word, Naruto draw his chokuto from his back rushed forward and slashed at Zabuza, his chakra already running through the blade and making it glow a soft white. Just as the blade was about to touch his skin, Zabuza brought his huge sword up and blocked it at the last second.

Giving Naruto's sword an appraising look, the young Namikaze could almost see the grin through the bandages covering his mouth.

Neither notice Haku sprinting off into the mist, Itachi and Kurenai right on her heels.

"Amazing, that something so beautiful could be so deadly, they say you're a Kenjutsu master of the highest level and that your sword can kill a man with nothing but a few good scratches. Let's see if they were right... Frost!"

With one big heave, Zabuza managed to push the smaller boy away from himself, only for them to meet moments later, swords clashing and seeming to blur in and out of sight as they engaged in a deadly dance of death.

XXX

The moment Itachi and Kurenai caught up to the ice user they realised their mistake as they watched the dome of mirrors taking shape around them.

"We don't want to hurt you! Stop this know and no one will get hurt."

Itachi waited for and answer, only to turn around and block the senbon that came at him from behind. Expecting to see the girl, he was a little surprised to find nothing but her reflection.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to interfere, not when Zabuza-sama is so close to his dream."

As she spoke, Haku leaned out of the mirror so that her head was out while the rest of her body stayed in place.

Looking at her with wide eyes, Itachi said the first thing that popped in his head.

"That is so cool, why can't Naruto do shit like that?"

Ignoring the Uchiha, Kurenai moved into a defensive position with a kunai in each hand.

"What _is_ Zabuza's dream?"

The world seemed to go silent as Haku spoke, a small smile on her face. What they heard made both jonnin's eyes widen in shock as they drop out of their defensive stances, neither being able to fully comprehend what they had just been told.

XXX

Both Naruto and Zabuza were covered in small scratches and panting from the strain of their battle.

The fact that the former seven swordsmen was still standing impressed Naruto, a lesser man would have been dead on the ground after sustaining so many cuts from his chakra enhanced sword. Despite all the cuts on his body, Naruto was the only one bleeding, each drop that hit the ground exploding into a deadly frozen flower.

The reason for this was that every time he cut the larger man, the wound, along with the skin around it, would freeze, making it harder and harder for him to move as little by little he was being frozen alive.

Breaking apart one last time, Zabuza's arms fell limp at his sides, but he never let go of his sword. Taking in a deep breath, the ex Mist-nin let out a booming laugh that echoed in the mist all around them.

"This is it; this is what I was looking for. You really are as good as they say, and so much more."

Sheathing his sword, Naruto let out a deep breath.

"I want to ask you a question"

Looking at the smaller boy with a grin now clearly visible after Naruto got cut the bandages away from his face during their sword fight, narrowly missing the skin as he did so, Zabuza let out another laugh.

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"What is your dream?"

Waiting for Zabuza to get over his latest laughing fit, Naruto stood patently, waiting for his answer.

"My dream... my dream is to die fighting! A Warrior's Death! That is my dream!"

XXX

They kept staring at Haku in shock, waiting for her to tell them it was a joke, but she didn't

"A Warrior's Death...?"

"Yes, it has always been his dream to die in the heat of battle against a worthy opponent. Zabuza lives for battle and wants nothing more then to die in it."

XXX

"To feel my heart racing in my chest-"

XXX

"To fight to his last breath-"

XXX

"To taste my own blood in my mouth-"

XXX

"To feel the rush of adrenalin in his veins-"

XXX

"A true death-"

XXX

"A Beautiful Death-"

XXX

"A..._A_...True..._True_... Warriors... _Warriors_... _DEATH!_"

XXX

Naruto just stared at the man in front of him with a blank face for a long moment before slowly reaching up and pulling his hood down, a small smile gracing his lips.

"That... sounds like a cool death."

At his words Naruto saw a true smile cross Zabuza's face as he watched the young boy charge up a small ball in his right hand, no bigger then a golf ball, made of pure white chakra.

Nodding his head as he lifted his sword for the last time, Zabuza took a deep breath.

"Do me a favour... look after Haku for me; she's a good kid, put up with me all these years. And take my sword with you."

Nodding his head, Naruto started charging at Zabuza, ball in hand as Zabuza lifted his sword in preparation of one last swing.

"**Kaika Hyouga Rasengan**"

Everything was quite as they stood with their backs facing each other, neither moving a muscle, barely even breathing. Naruto with his arm out straight and Zabuza with his sword raised in the air.

Zabuza's words were barely a whisper, yet they carried through the mist as if they had been shouted.

"A Beautiful Death..."

His sword slipped out of his hand and the world started to move in slow motion.

Exploding out in a shower of blood and ice, a large blooming rose burst out of Zabuza's back at the same point as a small, golf ball sized hole in his chest as his body froze solid.

He was dead before the sword hit the ground, a serene smile on his face as his eyes glazed over and saw no more.

XXX

**_Kaika Hyouga Rasengan_- Blooming Glacier Rasengan **

**In this fic Haku is 18.**

**Before anyone has a go at me because Naruto is so strong, remember Orochimaru did more then just give him a bloodline. **

**The reason Haku stopped Kurenai from killing Zabuza will be explained next chapter.**

**R&R :)**


	6. Preparing

**I'm not really happy with this chapter but there isn't really much I can do with it so sorry, the next one will be better.**

**Before you ready anything I will remind you that this is a fic, so I can change anything I want :P**

**Before people start asking about a Haku/Naruto pairing, don't, they will be like brother and sister in this fic.**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 6- Preparing

_August 25_

_I have been able to fully map out Sub-Zero's DNA. With the data I have collected from him I am confident I will be able to continue my research. The only problem that I have found is that although I can replicate the experiment, I will never be able to create anything with the same potential as Sub-Zero himself. His DNA is unique and I am unable to completely replicate it. But I will be able to use the information I have gathered and that is what is important at this point, I will find a way to outdo myself._

XXX

As the adrenalin rush from the fight started to wear off Naruto found he was a little lightheaded, swaying slightly as his legs turned to jelly the young Namikaze found himself sitting down before he fell. Breathing slightly heavier then normal, with his legs crossed and Zabuza's sword on the ground next to him, Naruto realized he was getting rusty.

A few months ago a fight like that wouldn't have tired him out nearly this much.

He could already feel the small cuts he had gotten in his fight healing, the slight itchiness he felt a sign that he would be completely healed in a matter of moments as his breathing retuned to normal. By the time Itachi, Kurenai, Haku and his team got to him the only sign he had been in a fight was the rips in his clothing and the still standing body of Zabuza a few feet away from him.

Looking up at Itachi from his seated position, Naruto let a small smile form on his lips.

"Well, that was fun"

Shaking his head at his friend's antics, Itachi looked down at the smaller white haired boy with a smirk.

"You're getting rusty, or he was better then his bingo book entry said he was. Why'd you let him cut you put like that?"

Shrugging his shoulders as he got to his feet; Naruto walked over and stood next to his team, stretching for a moment before answering.

"A bit of both, I've been spending most of my time training these three and let myself fall behind on my own training. It's cool; I'll start training again when we get back to the village."

While they were talking, Haku made her way over to the frozen body of her father figure, the cold having no effect on her at all as she ran a hand over his stone like face.

Noticing her stood their Naruto raised an eyebrow at both Itachi and Kurenai, both of whom had sheepish grins on their faces.

"She didn't want to fight, so there wasn't any point in starting one."

Nodding his head after a moment of thought, Naruto made his way over to her, picking up the Kubikiri Bōchō as he came up behind her. He could see the tears rolling down her face and, oddly enough, a peaceful smile.

Looking at him out of the corner of her eye, Haku turned to face him and bowed.

"I thank you for fulfilling Zabuza-sama's dream"

"You're a very strange person, you know that?"

Chuckling at his words, Haku's eyes slowly drifted to the sword in his hand. Seeing where she was looking Naruto raised the sword, seemingly without effort despite its size and weight, and offered it to her.

For a moment it looked like she was going to take it, but after taking a deep breath she shuck her head and pushed it towards him.

"It's yours by right, you are his successor, and I was never any good with swords anyway."

Nodding his head again, Naruto turned back to his fellow Leaf-nin, Kubikiri Bōchō resting on his shoulder.

"Well, what do you think?"

Walking up with a serious face and circling him, Itachi nodding his head once before breaking out into a grin.

"Very badass, but can you even use it? It's not exactly your chokuto."

Giving the large sword an appraising look, much like Zabuza had done at the start of their fight with his, Naruto stepped away from the group and started to channel chakra into the metal like he did with his chokuto and twirled it around in his hands, making the huge sword appear weightless before smiling to himself.

"It's cool, heavier then what I'm used to, but that will just add more power into my strikes. Looks like I might get a chance to test it out anyway."

Turning around to see what he meant, they all saw the large group of thugs walking up to them, a small grey haired man with dark glasses leading the way with a smug smile on his face.

"Well, looks like I don't have to kill that buffoon after all. I'd thank you but you'll all be dead soon enough so there isn't much point."

They watched as he looked over their group and saw the lingering looks he had for Kurenai, Sakura and Madoka before landing on Haku.

"Did you really think I was going to pay you when it's so much cheaper to just hire bandits to kill you when you're weak? Though in your case, death is the last thing you need to worry about. Your master isn't here to protect you anymore."

Turing to Itachi with a board look on his face while ecnoring the man's rant, Naruto nudged his friend on the shoulder and gestured towards the thugs.

"If it's cool with you I'm going to go and test out this sword, I'll leave the midget in the fancy suit and his band of monkeys to you, have fun."

Grinning at his friend, Itachi just nodded as he watched Naruto walked off in the direction of the wood.

It was at this point that Gato took notice of what was going on and stop his rant about how much smarter he was then everyone else.

"HEY, I'm talking here, where the hell is he going?"

Turning to Gato and his thugs with a smile on his face, Itachi let his eyes turn red.

"Oh, that's not important, but I'll tell you what is. No matter what happens, whatever you do don't look into my eyes."

The moment the word left his mouth everyone on the thugs looked into his eyes, just as he planed.

The grin on the older Uchiha's face as the thugs started screaming and attacking each other was enough to scare even his younger brother.

XXX

Naruto knew he was being followed ever since he left the bridge, not that she was really trying to hide it. Choosing to ignore Haku as he walked into the same clearing they had first met, Naruto got into a stance and stated to move through different katas, trying to get a feel for the sword in his hands.

It was heavy, but to him it was nothing, the extra length making his movements clumsier then he was used to, not that anyone but he could tell the difference.

He could faintly hear the sound of screams in the distance, telling him Itachi was having fun. For such a mellow guy he sure did like torturing people with his genjutsu. From the sounds of the men screaming about crows, he knew his friend was using his signature illusion, the very thing that gave him his name in the Bingo book.

It was actually quite simple; it started with him bursting into a flock of crows that would fly at his enemy and every time someone tried to kill one, three more would appear. Eventually you panic as the crows peck and scratch at your skin and eyes, causing you to lash out randomly. Itachi had once slaughtered an entire bandit camp numbering in the hundreds without even drawing a kunai with this genjutsu.

As time went by the screams faded until nothing was left, and Naruto continued with his stances without a care in the world.

"You know, it's not cool to spy on people when they are training."

Dropping down from the branch she had been sitting on at the edge of the clearing, Haku slowly made her way over to Naruto.

"You knew I was there the entire time so it's not spying, I was waiting for you to finish."

Shrugging his shoulders Naruto stabbed the large sword into the ground and sat in the same spot he had been the day they met.

"Tell me something, if Zabuza wanted to die in battle, why did you stop Kurenai-san from making the finishing blow the day they came to Wave?"

Kneeling down across from him, Haku took a moment to think about what she was going to say.

"She wasn't the right one."

Naruto just sat, waiting for her to continue.

"Zabuza-sama always thought of himself as much of a swordsman as he did a ninja, he wanted the one to kill him to be able to wiled Kubikiri Bōchō. At one point it was going to be me, but I am not a swordsman, I am a ninja. While Zabuza-sama liked to get in close and fight, I keep my distance and use senbon to disable and kill without even being seen."

Nodding his head, Naruto smiled.

"It was about finding his sucessor as much as the fight wasn't it?"

"Yes"

"What will you do know? You're welcome to come with us to Konoha, after all I did promise Zabuza I would look after you."

Smiling gently, Haku nodded her head.

"I would like that, you are probably the closest thing I have to family know that Zabuza-sama is gone, you are all I have left."

XXX

Everything in Wave seemed to move at hyper speed after that day. The villagers had apparently shown up at the bridge just before Naruto had left, meaning they saw everything Itachi had done. They had found Gato curled up in a ball at the back of the pile of bodies, crying and mumbling to himself about the crows eating his eyes and tongue.

They had dragged him to him into the centre of the village and he was hung before nightfall.

There had been a huge party that night and Naruto was laughing at the sight of Itachi the next day with the mother of all hangovers. At some point during the celebration someone had taken his clothes leaving him with nothing but the grey bodysuit he wore under it. Naruto had denied any involvement of course.

By the end of the day Itachi had a fan club, it as his own fault for walking around the village with a hangover looking for his clothes and letting everyone see the tite grey bodysuit.

With Gato gone the bridge had more then enough people to help with the construction and it was done in no time at all with Tazuna and Inari laying the last slab themselves.

With the bridge finished and Gato dead the Leaf-nin, along with Haku, headed back to Konoha, Kubikiri Bōchō placed firmly on Naruto's with a long strip of black leather he had bought, his old sword sealed in a scroll.

Naruto had sent a messenger bird to Konoha after Gato's death telling his parents about Haku. The reply had been that when they arrived at the village she would be adopted into the Namikaze clan, thus protecting her from certain civilians on the council that would try to have her put into a breeding program. Since she was technically related to Naruto anyway it made things a lot easier to arrange.

They took their time heading back to the village and enjoyed the peace and quite of their surroundings, or they would have if not for Kiba.

It seemed now that she wasn't the enemy anymore Kiba had decided that Haku was hot, and in the true Inuzuka style that all males of his clan followed, that meant he was going to bug her until she agreed to go out with him.

For some reason this bothered Naruto, even though she was older then him he felt protective towards her, like he did with Madoka, and to have to hear Kiba going on and on about how he thought she was hot and how if she was his girlfriend he would treat her well was grinding on his nerves. He didn't have a problem with the Inuzuka, he had been friends with Kiba's older sister Hana since they were in the academy together, but the boy was at that stage where he was to arrogant for his own good.

Looking over his shoulder at the young boy, Naruto levelled a glare at him that shut him up faster then a slap to the face.

"Leave her alone"

After getting a grateful nod of the head from Haku, who had her hand in the sleeve of her kimono reaching for one of her senbon, Naruto turned back to look where he was going.

At his words something seemed to snap in Kiba, most likely his common sense. Ignoring Akamaru's warning, Kiba walked forwards and pushed the older boy, making him stumble.

Everyone stopped to look at the two as Naruto turned around to face Kiba fully.

"Or what, this has nothing to do with you. Who do you think you are to boss me around?"

Faster then anyone could see, Naruto had moved in front of the brash Inuzuka and was holding him a foot of the ground by his throat with one hand. Moving to try and calm the situation down before her student did something really stupid that would get him seriously hurt, Kurenai was stopped by Itachi laying his hand on her shoulder and shaking his head.

Looking into he younger boys eyes as his face started to turn red, Naruto let out a sigh.

"First, it is my business if you are bothering Haku because when we get back to the village she is being adopted into the Namikaze clan, meaning she is basically my sister. Second, I am your superior officer and if you ever talk to me or anyone else like that again I will have you removed from the ninja program and have your chakra sealed. There is no room in the Leaf for a boy that doesn't listen to his commanding officers."

By the end of Naruto's speech Kiba had gone deadly pale and his mouth was hanging open in shock. Shaking his head at the boy, Naruto dropped him to the ground and started to walk off, only to look over his shoulder at the coughing boy when he was a few feet away.

"And one more thing, learn to read body langue, if I hadn't stopped you when I did, Haku was about to stab you in the pressure point on your neck with one of her senbon so you would shut up."

Turing a shocked face towards Haku, who smiled sweetly back at him as she pulled a senbon out of her sleeve and twiddled it between her figures.

"Did you really think I would spend all those years with Zabuza-sama and not pick up a few things?"

Kiba's face went almost as pale as Naruto's.

XXX

Kushina was waiting for them at the main gate of Konoha as they came into view, a huge smile on her face and the moment her eyes locked on Naruto and Madoka she sprinted towards them and had both in a bear hug before they even knew what had happened.

He could hear Itachi sniggering behind him, but that didn't last long because as soon as she let them go the red headed ninja grabbed Itachi and Sasuke into a equally bone crushing hug as she had her own kids. When she had done, Kushina stood back and looked at each person in the group before her eyes landed on Haku.

Walking up to the girl she gave her a once over before smiling.

"You must be Haku; I'm Kushina Namikaze, Naruto and Madoka's mother. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Haku just smile and bowed her head towards Kushina.

"The pleasure is all mine, I would like to thank you and your husband for accepting me into your clan."

Returning the smile, Kushina led the group towards the Hokage tower. As they walked through the streets the people they passed would nod their heads in respect or say a quite 'Namikaze-sama' to Kushina.

As thy entered the Hokage office they were just in time to see Minato going through hand sings, staring at the piles of paperwork on his desk with a crazed look in his eyes.

"MINATO, if you do what I think you were about to do I'm going to kick your ass!"

Looking like a dear caught in headlights, the blonde Hokage sat down with a pout.

"It's not my fault; every time I look away they double in size."

"Not my problem, you're setting a bad example"

Haku watched on with wide eyes as the Yondaime Hokage, the Yellow Flash of Konoha and one of the most feared men in the Elemental Nations acted like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and by everyone else's lack of a reaction she could only assume that this happened often enough to be considered normal.

It was at that point that Minato noticed the others in the room and blushed.

Looking from Haku to his son Minato coughed into his hand.

"You must be Haku, the girl that my son wrote to us about. It's a pleasure to meat you, we have already set up a room for you and my wife will be showing you around the village while we discuses some things here. Both you and the Gennin are dismissed."

Naruto made a note of how Itachi had his eyes glued to Haku's ass as she walked past him, and the small smirk he saw on her face and sway she added to her hips when she saw him looking.

Just as they were about to leave the room Minato called out to his wife and daughter.

"And no ramen"

They could all hear the two Namikaze women grumbling as the door shut behind them. Putting on his serious face, Minato looked at the three jonnin in front of him.

"From the sword on your back, I can only assume Zabuza is dead, you didn't say much in your letter apart from you were bringing a girl from the Yuki clan back with you."

It took the three of them an hour before they had finished the debriefing, starting with Kurenai's first encounter with the Demon brothers and ending with Itachi's slaughter of Gato and his army of thugs.

Other then the odd question here and there Minato didn't interrupt them, and after dismissing Kurenai he turned to the two teens.

"Thank you for going as back up on such short notice, I would have sent Tenzou along with you as well but he was out of the village at the time. Now there is something I would like to talk to you about. Itachi, as of now you are being removing from ANBU duty."

"What, but why?"

"Don't worry you did nothing wrong, I know you have been teaching team 7 ninjutsu and have been helping them when not on missions. They are without a doubt the most promising gennin team we have seen in years and I am making you their official joint jonnin sensei along with Naruto."

Looking at his father for a moment, Naruto sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk as Itachi took the other.

"Why?"

Letting out a sigh, Minato rubbed his eyes as a frown crossed his face.

"In two months the chunnin exam will be held here in Konoha. The council has nominated team 7 as their mandatory representative."

Both Naruto and Itachi's eyes widened at his words and the older Uchiha shot to his feet.

"That's insane; no matter how skilled they are they are still fresh out of the academy gennin!"

"Calm down Itachi, as I remember both you and my son where several years younger then they are now when you took your exams."

"They are not us; they aren't ready for such a responsibility!"

"You think I don't know that! I have no choice, the decision has been made!"

"Why them?"

Both turned to look at Naruto, who was by far the calmest in the room.

"Think about it, they have two of the "Konoha three" teaching them, Madoka's is a Jinjuriki and Sasuke is one of the last Uchiha. Hell you even have the Haruno girl learning under Tsunade, the 'Slug Princess'. They have the potential to be grate and you're having them run towards it instead of walking like most do. There is already talk of having you both as jonnin instructors again when they are finished learning under you. I'm not saying what you are doing is a bad thing, but it got a lot of people attention. The fact that the chunnin exam is being held in the Leaf was just the icing on the cake."

Nodding his head as Itachi sat back down, the white haired boy thought for a moment.

"Its fine, if the council has decided then there is nothing we can do but prepare them. I'm sure that between myself and Crow we can have them up to scratch in two months."

Nodding his head reluctantly, Itachi got a contemplative look on his face as he turned to Naruto.

"So how are he going to start, other then stepping up their physical body conditioning and maybe teaching them a few new Jutsu I don't really know what else we can do that we aren't already doing?"

Before Naruto could say anything Minato spoke.

"I've already talked to Tsunade, she isn't happy about it but she agreed to step up Sakura's training so you don't need to worry too much about her because she is training to be a Mad-nin."

Nodding their heads at his words, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out the scroll he had sealed his chokuto into.

"I always thought it would be cool to teach Madoka swordsmanship, though I was going to wait another couple of months. Now that I have Kubikiri Bōchō I was planning on giving her my old chokuto anyway, it will just be a little sooner then I had planned."

Nodding his head, Itachi thought for a moment.

"There is a second way that an Uchiha can unlock their sharingan without a life or death situation, it will be hard but I think Sasuke can do it, when he has unlocked it I can start to teach him how to control it."

The decisions made, Minato dismissed the two young jonnin and turned back to his paperwork with tears in his eyes.

"It bigger then ever!"

XXX

Over the next month and a half team 7 trained themselves into the ground.

Naruto and Itachi had told them the day after they had returned to the village and although they were nervous, it was still a great honour to be chosen by the council. There would be other teams from the Leaf, older and more experienced, but the fact that they had been singled out from the rest was something the three gennin were proud of.

It also meant they would have a target painted on their backs the moment the exam started, something that both Itachi and Naruto had made sure they understood.

Sakura was quickly becoming an increasable Medic from what Tsunade had told them, her natural control over her chakra and her thirst for knowledge making the profession the perfect choice for the pink haired girl.

Although he didn't tell Naruto how, Itachi had been able to get Sasuke to unlock his Sharingan and his training had been progressing wonderfully.

Madoka had been ecstatic to learn swordsmanship from Naruto and had hugged him so hard she almost broke a few of his ribs when he had given her his old chokuto. Sometime she was too much like their mother for his liking. Ever since she had first held the sword Madoka had all but slept with it, using all her spear time to practice so she could be as good as her brother.

They still did team training, and Naruto made sure that they didn't fall behind in their physical training while Itachi had started to teach them a few more advanced Jutsu, including the **Hidden Mist Jutsu**.

Naruto had finally had them move on with their **Awareness** training to learning how to use it outside the mist and although it was hard, they were getting the hang of it quickly after using it so often. Naruto had said that the next step would be getting them to use it subconsciously.

By the time the chunnin exams came around they were sure the three young gennin would be ready for almost anything thrown at them.

Haku had settled into the village easily and by the end of the first month everyone treated her like she had lived there her whole life. She, Naruto and Madoka had built up a sibling boned that was so strong that if someone had just met them they would be fooled into think the here had known each other for years.

They had told her about what had happened to Naruto, and to say she was pissed was an understatement. Her temper had been so much like Kushina's that both Naruto and Minato had cowered away from her on pure reflex.

Naruto had taught Haku a few of his Jutsu, including his **Ice Wolf Jutsu** and she had taught him her **Demonic Mirror Jutsu**.

There was also the fact that ever since her first week in Konoha both Haku and Itachi had been flirting every time they saw each other and had even started dating a few weeks before the Chunnin Exam was going to start.

It could be worse Naruto had reasoned, at least he trusted Itachi.

XXX

Walking down the street with Kubikiri Bōchō set firmly on his back, Naruto was enjoying his first day off since they had returned from Wave. The exam started at the end of the week and both he and Itachi had agreed to let the three gennin have a rest before the exam, along with themselves.

He had just stopped to look at one of the posters advertising the Chunnin Exam, his **Awareness** down for the first time in weeks when he felt someone bump into his back, sending whoever it was to the ground.

Turning to see who had walked into him the white haired boy was met with an angry faced red headed girl with dark skin and yellow eyes.

XXX

**Before anyone asked about Kiba, he is argent and brash, which is why that happened in this chapter, he will straiten out later on in the story.**

**R&R :)**


	7. What the Hell!

**Samui and her team are 17 in this fic.**

**Please read the AN at the end of this chapter.**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 7- What the Hell!

_February 10_

_After testing several elemental Jutsu on Sub-zero I have found that the only effective element against him is Lightening. He seems to be able to use both Wind and Water to make himself more powerful and can counter Earth with little difficulty. Fire is not effective simple because it is not hot enough to cause him harm, while Lightening is able to brake through his defences because of its speed and the fact it is hotter then Fire._

XXX

Sending Naruto a glare as she stood back up, the red haired girl put her face inches away from his and growled.

"Why don't you watch were your going ass hole?"

Raising an unseen eyebrow at the older girl, Naruto took a moment to look at her.

'_C_l_oud-nin'_

That much was obvious from the metal plat on her bandanna.

'_Short tempered and judging from the katana on her back she's probably an experienced swordsman'_.

Sighing, he was about to answer her when he was interrupted by a white haired, dark skinned boy stood behind the girl.

"Karui, you walked into him"

Turning to her friend with a tick mark on her forehead, Karui yelled.

"Shut the hell up Omoi!"

"But if you get in a fight with a Leaf-nin it could cause an international incident and that could lead to war and then the Yellow Flash and Raikage-sama would have to fight and then sensei would join in and then the Red Angel of Konoha would join and it would be the end of both our villages."

"I said shut up!"

Turing back to Naruto, the red headed Cloud-nin stuck her finger into his chest and sneered.

"Apologise"

Looking down at the finger pocking him in the chest, Naruto fixed his cold blue and white eyes to her yellow once, causing her to take a step back at their intensity.

"First, you walked into me, I was standing still so if anyone need to apologise it's you. Second, if you ever pock me again I will keep the finger and third, despite the fact that you are obviously here for the Chunnin Exam, you are still in a foreign village and have yet to state your business or shown me the appropriate paperwork to prove you are authorised to be in this village. As it is I am perfectly within my right to drag you both to the Konoha Interrogation Department for questioning."

After taking a moment to get over her shock at everything the boy had said, Karui's eyes got a steely look to them and a cold smirk spread across her lips as she made a big show of reaching for her sword, confident in the fact that the large sword on his back was just for show and that there was know way he could use it.

"Like you could make me go anywhere pipsqueak, a baby gennin like you doesn't stand a chance against someone like me, and by the way that makeup your wearing makes you look gay."

"Makeup?"

Before anything else could happen, they were interrupted by a cold, feminine voice.

"Karui, it's not cool to start fights"

Turing to where the voice had come from Naruto was met with the sight of what might have been one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen.

She wore a low cut grey shirt and a pair of black training short with a mesh shirt underneath that was clear for all to see over her large breast. She had short blonde hair that reached her shoulders and cold blue eyes that seemed to see right through everything they looked at.

She kept a blank expression on her face the whole time she was walking over to them.

Next to her was a large muscular man with dark skin and slicked back blonde hair held in place by his forehead proctor. He wore the typical jonnin uniform for Kumo and wore a pair of dark glasses on his face that completely covered his eyes. On his left cheek was a tattoo of a pair of blue horns and sticking out from behind his back were eight sword pummels wrapped in red material.

Even with the goofy grin on his face Naruto knew he was watching every move he made and was sizing him up.

Turing to her team leader, Karui said in a slightly sulky voice that was miles away from what she had been like before.

"But he started it, he walked into me."

Without spearing a second glance at her teammate, Samui walked up to Naruto and gave him there papers for his inspection not expecting for him to understand them anyway.

Imagine her surprise when he seemed to know exactly what they were for. Nodding his head, Naruto turned to the older man.

"You should teach your gennin better manners jonnin-san, it wouldn't be cool if something bad happened to them because of a misunderstanding. And for the record, I don't wear makeup."

That last part was directed at Karui.

Smiling at the boy Killer-Bee crossed his hands over his chest with piece sings on each hand.

"No worries bro, no need to make such a low blow."

Naruto stared at him for a moment before shaking his head.

"Speak English"

"Don't be trippin, just because I is hip and in"

"If you don't stop talking like that I swear to god I will remove your tongue."

Letting out a depressed sigh and shaking his head, Omoi looked at Naruto with tired eyes.

"It wouldn't help, he writes like that to"

Killer-Bee looked at the boy for a long minute. He had a bad feeling that the boy could and would carry out his threat. He didn't know why he seemed so familiar but something was screaming in his head that his boy was dangerous, and it wasn't the Hachibi.

Shocking his three students, the Jinjuriki stood up straight and nodded his head to the boy.

"I apologise for my students actions towards you, I will be talking to her about it later. My name is Killer-Bee, may ask yours?"

Raising his hand so he could shake the boys hand he watched as he hesitated for a moment before talking, still not taking the offered hand.

"Naruto Namikaze"

It was the first time any of the three gennin had seen their sensei visibly pale and watched as his eyes flicked fearfully towards Karui before moving back to Naruto's.

They all recognise the name, but couldn't place it.

Pulling his hand back slowly, Killer-Bee took a single step back before speaking again, ignoring the Hachibi's voice in his head screaming for him to put as much distance between himself and the boy as possible.

"Is that so, your reputation proceeds you Mister Frost. I trust this incident will be taken no further."

"I have no wish to fight you or you're gennin. You need not worry; it wouldn't be cool to make a big deal out of nothing after all."

When he had finished he let a small smile spread across his lips, which actually made Samui blush before she quickly pushed it down before her teammates could see.

Without another word Naruto turned his back to them and walked away.

As soon as he was out of sight Karui put up a face of smug confidence that she didn't really feel after seeing her sensei's reaction to his name.

"Ha, the little prick ran away, who the hell was he anyway sensei."

Turning to his student with a mixture of anger and worry Killer-Bee reached into his back pocket, pulled out his bingo book and started to flip through pages.

Karui was about to walk away when he pushed the page with Naruto's newly updated bingo book entry in her face, which now included his defeat of Zabuza.

"What! There's no way that brat is this strong, it not possible!"

Snatching the book from her sensei's hand, Karui read the entire section on him over and over again, both Samui and Omoi reading over her shoulders.

Looking at her sensei with wide eyes, Karui felt the blood drain from her face at his next words.

"If you ever pick a fight with someone like that again I will drag you back to Kumo and send you back to the academy. You have no idea just dangerous that was, he could have killed you before you even realised it."

All she could do was nod her head dumbly at his words. She had messed up and she knew it.

None of them noticed Samui disappearing around the corner in the direction Naruto had just left.

XXX

The blond haired Cloud-nin followed the younger boy to the edge of the village into the training grounds being sure to keep her distance so he didn't notice her as she stood behind a tree at the edge of a small training ground furthest away from the village.

It was more of a clearing really, no equipment of any kind or natural rock formations to train with. the only advantage it had was the fact there probably wasn't many that knew about it because of how far out it was.

"What is it with people spying on me?"

Looking around from the tree she was stood behind, Samui was met with the sight of Naruto standing in the middle of the clearing staring right at her with a curios look on his face. He didn't say anything else, waiting for her to explain what she had been doing.

Sighing to herself for getting caught, Samui walked from behind the tree and faced him directly, leaving about fithteen feet between them.

They stayed like that for a moment, the older blonde looking him up and down as she collected her thoughts.

"Naruto Namikaze, AKA Jack Frost, member of the infamous 'Konoha Three' and partially responsible for the death of Raiga Kurosuki, directly responsible for the death of Zabuza Momochi, both former members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Bloody Mist and current holder of the KubikiriBōchō. You are an expert in using Ice Jutsu and are well know for your policy of never leaving an enemy alive. You are the youngest ninja to ever be placed in the Bingo book over C-rank and said to be one of the most promising sword master in the Elemental Nation in years. It is expected that within the next few years you will be officially declared one of the new sannin."

Raising one of his eyebrows, apparently she had read his bingo book entry though he was surprised she didn't mention his father like so many others before her, Naruto let a bored tone layer his voice.

"And your point is?"

"You interest me"

"You're not going to ask for my autograph or something are you?"

"Doubtful"

"Then what do you want?"

Slowly reaching for the katana strapped to her back so he didn't take I the wrong way, Samui drew the blade and held it out towards him.

"A spar"

The younger boy looked at her for a moment, not sure he had heard her right.

"Excuses me?"

Getting into a stance, with the same expressionless look on her face she had worn since he met her Samui looked him in the eye.

"I wish to have a spar with you"

"Why?"

"You are strong, that interests me. I wish to test just how strong you are"

He stood there for a moment, examining her flawless stance and the resolution in her eyes before nodding his head and grabbing the handle of KubikiriBōchō, Naruto brought the sword forward and held it in his right hand, got into his own stance and waited for her to make the first move.

He didn't have to wait long.

Rushing forwards Samui stabbed at his left shoulder with her katana. Moving with surprising speed considering the size of his sword, Naruto blocked the strike and countered by bringing his left leg up to kick the blonde in the stomach, only for her to break away from their sword lock. Samui jumped away to avoid the kick only to charge forwards again with a slash at his chest.

In a surprising show of flexibility, that had Samui's eyes widening slightly, Naruto leaned back so far his head almost touched the ground as the blade cut through the air where he had been a moment before. Leaning back up, his hood still in place on his head, Naruto made his own slash towards her chest while pressing his advantage since she couldn't bloke because of her missed slash.

Instead of fighting it to try and block his strike, Samui used the momentum from her swing to role out of the way from his attack causing it to miss cutting into her skin by mere inches. Following though with her role and landing on her feet a few yards away from her opponent, the blonde girl took a moment to try and slow her rapid breathing from the fast passed spar that had only just begun. Taking a moment to asses his style only to realise he wasn't even out of breath.

'_So far he hasn't actually attacked me, only responding to the attacks I throw at him and countering. Either he is trying to asses my style or he is going easy on me_.'

The thought that he was going easy on her brought a frown on her face.

"Don't underestimate me, if you keep going easy on me I will win"

"I never underestimate an opponent; too many good shinobi have made that mistake in the past and have lost their lives because of it. I am assessing just how good you are so I can respond appropriately."

Still annoyed that he wasn't taking her seriously Samui aimed another slash at his chest followed by three more to his legs and stomach. She had always prided herself on her speed with a sword; she was one of the only ninja in Kumo that could last more then five minutes against her sensei before being completely overwhelmed. But despite that and the fact that his sword was so much heavier then her own making it slower, he blocked all her strikes with apparent ease.

Naruto watched her as she backed away again, trying to devise a plan around his defence. Then something happened he wasn't expecting.

Samui let a small smile spread across her face. It looked nice on her, natural. She had been beautiful before but with that smile on her face it made her look as close to perfect as one could get.

If it wasn't for his hood hiding most of his face from view, Samui would have Naruto's face go from a pale white to a deep blue in seconds as the blush covered it and the breath caught in his throat.

While he was trying to push down his blush Samui was fighting against one of her own.

She had always been attracted to strong men; it was something she had always looked for in the past. But every time she met someone worth her attention they were always too old. But Naruto wasn't, here was someone strong that was giving her a run for her money with a sword and was not only not too old, but two years her junior. Sure he was from a different village but she didn't care.

It was actually making her feel hot just thinking about it.

Deciding to step it up another step Samui channelled a small amount of chakra into the base of her katana to releases the weight seal she had placed on it and charge forward yet again.

Noticing the change in her speed after he was almost cut several times, Naruto changed his stance and started to attack instead of defend and used powerful strikes to push her back before charging in when she was open.

This continued for almost an hour, with her speed and agility Samui was able to doge almost anything he though at her, while with his superior strength and reflexes Naruto was able to counter and bloke all her strikes.

When it was getting close to the hour and a half mark Naruto ended it with a particularly hard strike that, in her tired state, the older girl wasn't able to doge and after trying to bloke was sent to the ground.

They were both panting and while he couldn't sweat, Samui was covered in it. He watched for a moment as it dripped down her face and into the fold of her shirt. Her huge breasts heaving from the deep breaths she was sucking in after fighting for so long.

But despite the fact she was filthy and dripping with sweat and had just lost to someone younger then her, Samui couldn't stop herself from smile at him as he looked down at her with a confused face.

Slowing his breathing, Naruto walked over to where she was sat on the ground and offered his hand to help her up.

Still smile the older blonde accepted his hand but as she got to her feet grabbed the front of his hoodie and pulled him forwards, crushing her lips against his. His lips were cold yet surprisingly soft against her own as she deepened the kiss more and pulled him closer so that she was pressed against his chest. When his mouth opened as in surprise she pushed her tongue into his mouth before he could even attempt to speak and ran it along the inside of his cheeks, tasting him and making herself more excited.

Naruto was so shocked by her actions that he just stood there frozen as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, pulling him even deeper into the kiss then he already was. He had never kissed anyone before, not being able to touch people in his youth and then dedicating himself to his training had left little time for such things.

It was strange, for the first time in his life he actually felt warmth and it had nothing to do with stealing another's body heat. Everywhere her hands touched she left a trail of heat on his skin and without realising it he had started to return the kiss in full, dropping KubikiriBōchō on the ground and wrapping his own arms around her back like she had him.

When they finally did brake apart for breath Samui leaned back a little so that she was still holding on to him and sighed, causing a small cloud of cold air to shoot out of her mouth.

Staring at the girl in his arms in slight shock, Naruto said the first thing that came to mind.

"What the hell?"

Chuckling at his reaction, Samui steeped out of his arms and picked her Katana off the ground and sheathing it in place on her back. Noting how he was blushing blue instead of red and just how adorable it looked on him.

"Meet me outside the Golden Leaf Hotel tomorrow morning at 9. You're going to show me around the village and buy me dinner."

Nodding dumbly, Naruto watched as she walked away from him with a sway in her hips before looking at him over her shoulder, the smile gone and her face back to its expressionless mask.

"Don't be late."

And with that she walked off back toward the village.

Still rooted to the spot, Naruto shuck his head before putting KubikiriBōchō on his back and walking towards the closet bar he could find.

XXX

An hour later Itachi and Haku walked into one of the many shinobi bars in Konoha together only to see Naruto sat at the counter with a bottle of sake in his hand and three empty ones on the ground at his feet. He was swaying slightly on his stool and actually had his hood down wile he chugged the bottle in his hand and asked for another.

Shrugging his shoulder at his girlfriend Itachi made his way over to the seats next to his friend and asked for a drink before turning to Naruto with a raised eyebrow.

"Since when do you drink alone, normally I have to drag you to a bar and force the first few bottles of sake down your throat."

Looking at the two out of the corner of his eye, Naruto grabbed the new bottle of sake the barman put in front of him and took a swig before turning to face them.

"I _really_ needed a drink"

The smile on Itachi's face broke into a grin as he saw just how drunk his friend was and turned to whisper in Haku's ear.

"Bet I can get him to tell us what happened, he always talks when he's drunk."

Grinning back him Haku nodded her head and leaned in to listen to what they were saying.

"So Jacky-Boy what's got you so worked up?"

Taking another gulp of sake and getting a far off look on his face, Naruto asked Itachi the last thing he had ever expected.

"What dose it mean when a girl challenges you to a spar, kisses you when you win and tells you to meat them the next day for dinner?"

Mouth agape Itachi stared at Naruto with unconcealed shock, which was mirrored by Haku.

In all the years he had known Naruto, not once had he ever asked a question about girls.

The grin that spread across his was so big it was almost painful as he placed an arm around the younger boy's shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

"I'm so proud of you! My little Jacky-Boy is growing up, wait until Woody hears about this."

"Just because I'm drunk doesn't mean I can't hit you"

Ignoring the comment, Itachi turned to the barman and asked for the strongest sake he had for them to celebrate.

"So tell us who this girl is, anyone I know?"

"She's from Kumo; her team is here for the exams."

"Is she competing or is she a jonnin sensei?"

"Competing"

This made a laugh escape from Itachi's throat.

"A gennin, really? And you actually spared with her?"

"From what I can tell her team must be Ringers, I didn't channel any chakra into my sword while we fought but she was good. If she didn't get tired we might still be there now."

That answered a lot of questions. Ringers were gennin that were held back from entering the Chunnin exams for a few years to train so that when the time came they made the village look stronger. It was a commonly used method in many of the Hidden villages.

"What was her name?"

"I have no idea"

"...So you made out with a girl, you don't know her name and you going on a date with her tomorrow. Jacky-Boy, I have never been more proud of you then I am right now."

After drinking a mouthful of his sake Itachi turned back to Naruto with a playful grin on his face.

"So, tell me about this kiss, was she good?"

If he wasn't so drunk Naruto would never answer a question like that and without stopping to think the words flew out of his mouth.

"It was the first time I have ever felt warm without stealing the body heat from another and I have no idea why"

Both Itachi and Haku burst out laughing at his words, he was so clueless it was adorable. Wiping the tears from her eyes Haku leaned over her still laughing date so she could talk to him.

"So? Are you going to meet her?"

"I have a feeling that if I don't she will find me and drag me out with her even if I a stronger then her. Women are scary when their pissed."

His words just made the Uchiha sat next to him laugh all the harder, Naruto reached for his sake and downed the last of it before getting shakily to his feet.

"I better get home before mom comes looking for me, hope you have a cool date."

Tuning away from the two still laughing teens and heading to the door, he hear Itachi call out to him just as he was leaving.

"Right back at you"

Turing to the still grinning girl next to him, Itachi raised his bottle of sake in a toast.

"To Naruto, may his life always be a source of entertainment"

Tapping their bottles together and taking a long drink, the older boy couldn't help but throw in one last comment.

"And he's right about the pissed off women thing"

Sending him a mischievous smirk, that sent a slight shiver down his spin Haku nodded.

"And don't you forget it"

XXX

The next day Naruto made his way to the Golden Leaf Hotel to meet Samui like she had told him, grateful for the fact that he never got hangovers and cursing the fact he was drunk enough to ask Itachi about a girl.

Thinking back on what had happened, the young Namikaze couldn't make any sense out of it. One minute they were slashing at each other with swords, the next she had pulled him into a kiss that he couldn't stop thinking about. It was so frustrating.

He wasn't ignorant about girls, he knew where babies came from and all that shit but had never really though about them in that way.

After all no matter how mature he was, Naruto was still only 15.

He didn't even know what her name was.

Turning the last corner into the street where the Golden Leaf was built, Naruto looked through the crowd until his eyes landed on a head of short blonde hair. Walking over to her, the white haired boy nodded his head to her and they walked in silence away from the hotel.

The moment they were out of the crowd Samui pulled the younger boy into a side ally and before he could say anything pushed him against a wall and kissed him just as passionately as the day before.

And like the day before Naruto found himself reacting to her touch on pure instinct, kissing her back with just as much force as she was him, pulling her closer so that their bodies were pressed against each other.

When she pulled back to breath, another cloud of mist shoot out of her mouth and she took a step back and smirked at his dazed expression.

"Cool, I'm guessing from the look on your face that you enjoyed that?"

Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, Naruto looked at the blonde in front of him.

"Seriously what the hell, I don't even know your name-"

"It's Samui"

"-and this is the second time you've done that."

Raising one of her eyebrows at him, Samui leaned forwards into his chest and whispered in his ear.

"Are you saying you don't like it?"

The young Namikaze could practically feel his mind turn to goo as he felt her breath on his ear, the same warmth spreading through him that he felt every time she kissed him.

Smirking to herself again, Samui started to trail her lips along his skin from his ear to his jaw line.

"You interest me, your the only guy I've met that can beat me in a swordfight and isn't twice my age. You're strong, and I like it."

Forcing his thoughts into some kind of order, Naruto tried not to shiver at the tone in her voice.

"I'm a 15 year old Leaf-nin that until yesterday had never kissed a girl."

"Then why did you meet me"

"Because girls are scary when their pissed off at something. Just ask my godfather, he gets beaten up all the time by angry women."

Smirking against his skin, the older blonde let a dark chuckle escape her mouth.

"I see you're a quick learner, that's good, it means there's one less thing I have to teach you."

Giving him one last peck on the lips, Samui stepped away and walked to the entrance of the ally with a sway in her hips and turned to look at him over her shoulder.

"Are you coming or not?"

Shaking his head yet again in an attempt to help clear it, Naruto made his way over to Samui and stood next to her.

"Crow was right, girls are weird"

XXX

Naruto showed Samui all around the village for the rest of the day, pointing out the different building and explaining their history. She had dragged him into two other allies' at different points in the day, each time pushing him against a wall and leaving him in a daze.

When he had asked her why she kept doing that, her reply had left him more confused then before.

"I like that shade of blue on your face"

Another odd thing was that whenever they were around other people she would keep up a mask of indifference at everything around them but the second they were alone a small smile would appear on her lips. It confused Naruto greatly.

When he was finished showing her around the village they went to the Akimichi Barbeque house he and his team often frequented for dinner and got a seat at his usual table near the back. It wasn't busy so they didn't have to wait long for the waitress and Naruto didn't miss the way she batted her eyes at him, or the cold look and tone of voice she used when taking Samui's order.

As she walked away to fetch them their order the blonde girl raised on of her slender eyebrows at the boy sat across the table from her.

"A friend of your?"

She could hear him grumbling under his throat at that.

"Not exactly, I recently found out Crow has made a hobby of telling random girls I like them as a joke. I need to remember to get even with him for that."

At his words she raised her other eyebrow.

"Crow as in Itachi Uchiha, the Black Crow of Konoha? The same Crow that according to the Bingo book is one of the most sadistic genjutsu masters in the Elemental Nations?"

He couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped his mouth.

"Yeh, when not in battle he is an idiot, but it's cool, he always balanced the team out."

Nodding her head in understanding Samui watched as the waitress came back and put their order on the table, still giving her a cold look, before walking over to another group on the other side of the room.

They eat in silence or a few minutes, enjoying the meal before Naruto decided to ask something that had been bugging him ever since yesterday when she had kissed him.

"What exactly is this?"

Looking up at him from her food the blonde girl let a small smirk cross her lips.

"I believe its sushi"

Naruto gave her a blank look.

"That's not what I meant, I mean what are we doing here and if you say eating I might freeze your food."

The smirk was replaced with a small smile and her eyes softening a little at him.

"It's called a date, have you never been on one before?"

"No, I haven't"

"I fine that hard to believe"

Neither said anything for a moment, just looking at each other from across the table as they ate.

"Why did you ask me out?"

"I told you, I like strength. I wasn't kidding when I said your the first to beat me in a sword fight that isn't twice my age, the fact that your cute is just a bonus."

"We're from different villages"

"Our villages are allied"

"Your older then me"

"Only by two years, are you done trying to come up with reasons not to date me or is there more?"

"I think that's it"

Nodding her head, she turned back to her food and the rest of the meal was spent in comfortable silence and when they were done they made their way back to the hotel.

The sun had set and from the dark clouds in the sky it looked like it was going to rain any minute, but that didn't seem to stop Samui from pulling him into another ally a few streets away from the hotel.

Just like all the other times she kissed him, when Samui broke the kiss it left Naruto in a daze and made him blush what was quickly becoming her favourite colure. It took a few minutes before he could talk again.

Nodding her head with a satisfied smirk on her face at his reaction the blonde Cloud-nin leaned forward so her face was inches away form the younger boys.

"Same time tomorrow, I want a rematch for yesterday."

"Ok"

Smiling, she walked off toward her hotel with a sway to her hips, ensuring the young Namikaze's eyes would be glued to her shapely rear until she turned a corner at the end of the street.

Shaking his head Naruto let out a sigh before walking home, a small smile on his face.

XXX

**For those wondering why Killer-Bee is so scared of Naruto, it's because in this fic he uses water more then anything because of the Hachibi and Naruto could just freeze anything he throws at him.**

**Also, because I suck at rapping, I will probably not have him talk in it all the time.**

**The Red Angle is Kushina's alias in this fic.**

**For anyone that doesn't agree with a 15 year old Naruto getting drunk, I don't care. He is a ninja and legally an adult so he can if he wants :P**

**If there are any complaints about Naruto getting used to the Kubikiri Bōchō so quickly, I don't really care I just couldn't be bothered to spend several chapters with him getting used to it.**

**the Samui naruto fight was my first real attempt at a detailed fight seen so let me know how it went.**

**For anyone wondering about a Lemon, I'm not sure if I will do one yet and if I do it will not be until after a time skip or something like that.**

**I will also say this now, Neji's father is still alive in this fic because Kumo didn't want to risk war this Minato still alive. The Hyuuga's will still not like Kumo because they tried to capture them in the war but Neji isn't such an ass to start off with in this fic because he still has his father.**

**hope you enjoyed the chapter**

**R&R :)**


	8. Sakura Gets a Date

**Sorry about the late update, have been having problems with my computer and had to start this chapter again. it was going to be longer but after I lost the first copy I forgot a few things and because so many of you were asking for a new chapter I decided to post it as it is.**

**Also because I am running out of ideas for the diary entries at the start of chapters I will only do them when they are relevant to the chapter.**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 8- Sakura Gets a Date

The next few days were interesting to say the least.

Every morning at 9 Naruto would meet Samui at the training field they had their first spared in, the blonde haired Kunoichi would find a way to make him turn blue, normally with a make out session that lasted anywhere between two and ten minutes and turned his mind to jelly. Then when he had gotten himself together they would spar until one of them, namely Samui, couldn't continue.

After catching their breaths, which Samui made sure didn't last long, they would talk.

They stayed away from things like training techniques, she and her team would be competing in the exam after all and they agreed that some things could wait until such a time as they were not competing. They didn't talk about what would happen after the Chunnin exam, deciding that they would worry about it when the time came and enjoy themselves until then.

When it started to get dark they would make their way back to the village and Naruto would treat Samui to dinner, never going to the same place twice.

They didn't tell anyone about their relationship and Naruto had been dogging both Itachi and Haku all week. They had tried to follow him on several occasions but he was always able to lose them before meeting up with Samui. He didn't want to think what would happen if his mother found out he had a girlfriend, let alone a girlfriend from Kumo.

They may have an alliance with them but Kushina was still cautious around anything to do with Kumo after what had happened to her.

Samui didn't tell her team because Bee-sensei was worried about anything to do with the white haired Namikaze and she didn't want to have to explain herself to any of them. She didn't really care through and when the time came if they made a fuss about it she would remind them that it was her choice who she dated and it had nothing to do with them.

XXX

Team 7 were making their way to the Academy to take the Chunnin Exam, each with varying moods as to what they were about to do.

Sakura was nervous, not as much as she would have been a few weeks ago but still enough to make her shake slightly. She could now use her **Awareness **in the mist for 16 minutes and at a range of 28 feet but outside she could only use it for 12 minutes and with a range of 17 feet. Her training with Tsunade and Shizune was going well and she was being praised as a prodigy in the medical feel and the pink haired girl could now understand why her teammate hate that word so much.

The pressure that was put on her shoulders was almost enough to break her at times, and the way people had started acting around her was more annoying the anything. They were all too _nice_, trying to get close to her and it was driving her insane, and she didn't want to think what it must have been like for Madoka and Sasuke having been considered prodigies at early ages. The way she used to act around Sasuke was almost enough to make her sick to her stomach.

Sasuke was confident that he would have little trouble in the exams, though he was sure to remember his brother's words to be careful of any other gennin competing. He had managed to increase his **Awareness** to 52 feet while in the mist and hold it for up to 34 minutes straight but it left him drained if he used it constantly. Outside the mist he could use it for 23 minutes and keep it at 30 minutes.

Madoka was without a doubt the most relaxed of the three, practically jumping up and down in excitement as she ran ahead of them. Like her teammates she had increased her **Awareness **since they were told about the Chunnin Exam and was able to use it for almost an hour straight with a range of 78 feet as long as she was in the mist. But outside she could only use it for 45 minutes with a range of 61 feet.

Her training with her brother had gone great and although she was nowhere near his level with a sword she had been improving in leaps and bounds.

Another thing Naruto and Itachi had them do was to get tattoo of several seals onto their bodies. They each had three storage seals, one on the palms of each hand and another on either their left or right shin that could be used for anything from kunai and shrunken to food and in Sakura's case medical supplies. They had all agreed when their sensei's showed them their own seals.

Another set of seals were something called Resistance seals.

They were similar to the weights many taijutsu specialists used, but with the seals they didn't have to waste time taking them off as all they needed to do was flare their chakra in a certain way and they would release. Unlike weight seals these were designed to make the mussels in the body work harder in whatever part of the body they were applied to, changing to a higher level whenever the person using them would start to get used to the level, Resistance seals put strain on the whole body at once an changed on their own to soot the users needs.

They had been allowed to release them one day every two weeks to get used to the difference it made to how they moved and to say they were happy with the results was an understatement.

As they walked into the building they each kept their **Awareness **to a range of 15 feet so it wouldn't tire them out too quickly but made sure they wouldn't be susceptible to a surprise attack.

When they got to the second floor they were met with a small crowed trying to get through a door with the number 301 above it, the room they were supposed to go to for the first part of the exam. It was being blocked by a pair of Leaf gennin with cruel expressions on their faces mixed in with smug superiority.

Without sparing them a second glance the three gennin walked to the next flight of stairs and continued to the third flood where the real room 301 was located and had just entered a large room with a balcony running along the side of it that was used for training when they were stopped by a vice calling out to them.

Looking up they were met with a strange sight.

The boy that had called out to them had large eyes with black dots in them, his black hair in a bowl cut style and the largest eyebrows any of them had ever seen. He was wearing a green spandex bodysuit with orange arm and leg warmers and they could clearly see his well developed mussels through his clothes, make Sakura blush slightly.

Stood next to the boy on either side of him was a boy that was clearly a Hyuuga, with his long blonde hair, plain clothes and white eyes and a girl wearing a pink Chinese style shirt, black training shorts and her brown hair tied up into two bunds at the back of her head.

The spandex clad boy was stood on the rail of the balcony with a large grin on his face and without warning jumped down and landed in front of them.

"Greetings my most youthful friends, my name is Rock Lee, the beautiful Green Beast of Konoha."

After staring at the boy for a moment the three gennin introduced themselves and they could see Lee's face light up even more.

"So you are Sasuke Uchiha, I would like to challenge you to a spar!"

The raven haired boy looked the older boy over for a moment, weighing his options and not missing the glances he was sending to his pink haired teammate stood next to him. He could tell from the boys build that he was a Taijutsu expert in training, the green spandex suit doing little to hide his muscular frame.

"I would love to spar with you Lee-san, but with the exam about to start it would be irresponsible for either of us to spar when it could risk both our team's chance. I would be glad to arrange something with you after the exam is over."

Getting a slightly shocked look on his face Lee quickly nodded his head.

"You are right; to spar now would be terribly irresponsible! As punishment for my foolish actions I will run around Konoha three times on my hands without falling, and if I fail at that I will climb the Hokage monument with a rock tied to my back, Yosh!"

Slightly amused at the strange boy's announcement, but mostly confused, team 7 were about to go to the stairs when he stopped them again, this time to talk to Sakura.

"Miss Sakura, I would like to formally ask you to accompany me on a date. I will protect you with my life!"

The three gennin were yet again surprised by the green clad boy and up on the balcony they could his teammates letting out sighs.

Sakura was speechless, she had never been asked out on a date before and here was a boy declaring he would protect her with his life. A few months ago she would have turned him down without a second thought, but for some reason she found herself considering it. He wasn't bad to look at and from what she could see and the way his muscles moved under the form fitting green material he must train very hard. He was a little odd, but everyone had their own thing and who was she to judge.

"Sure, why not."

The look on Lee and his teammate's faces was enough to make both Madoka and Sasuke laugh; clearly they hadn't expected her to agree.

Quickly getting over his shock Lee let lose a dazzling smile that hurt their eyes slightly from how bright it was and grabbed Sakura's hands in his.

"Thank you, you won't regret this, I will take you on the best date ever and if I fail I will do a thousand push ups on my pinkie fingers, and if I can't do that I will run around Konoha 13 times with a boulder strapped to my back and if-"

It was at this point in his rant that Lee's female teammate walked down the stairs and started to drag him away, still giving himself challenges as she pulled him up to their other teammate.

"Come on lover-boy, we'll miss the exam if you keep going on like this."

As the three walked off towards the designated room team 7 let out small chuckles as they could still hear Lee talking.

XXX

As they entered the room team 7 could all feel the tense atmosphere surrounding the people in it. They could see gennin from all different villages, Mist and Rain, Grass and Sound, Sand and Rock, there was even a team from Cloud stood not far to their right leaning against the wall.

Madoka missed the look she had gotten from the blonde Cloud-nin as she and her team walked into the room. They could see Lee and his team leaning against the far wall, the green spandex waving boy waving at them with a huge grin on his face.

Not 30 seconds after they had entered the room they felt someone coming towards them at high speed, heading straight for Sasuke who let out a sigh and just bent down as a purple blur shot over his head and landed on the floor in front of them.

Looking down at the shocked face of Ino the young Uchiha let out another sigh as she picked herself up and turned to him with a small pout on her face.

"That wasn't nice Sasuke-kun, we haven't seen each other in months and all I was trying to do was give you a hug."

The only outwards warning he got was the pout changing to a smirk before the blonde lunged at him again, only for her to miss as he stepped to the side. He would have to remember to thank Naruto sensei for teaching him **Awareness**; it was proving to have an unlimited number of uses.

Little did he know that dogging Fan-girls was the main reason Naruto, Itachi and Tenzou created it in the first place.

It was at this point that what he and his teammates were wearing seemed to register in the young blonde's brain and after starring at the three for a moment she started to drawl at Sasuke. Before Ino had time to try and grab him again Shikamaru and Choji had caught up to her along with Kiba, Hinata and Shino.

"Hey guys, so you're in this thing to, troublesome."

They stood there talking for a few minutes, discussing what they thought the exam would be like and how they thought they would do when a boy with grey hair, glasses and leaf forehead protector tied to his head.

"You guys should try and keep it down."

Frowning at the older boy Kiba walked up so he was stood right in front of him and pocked him in the chest.

"Who the hell are you to tell us what to do, four eyes."

Before he got an answer the dog like boy was hit in the back of the head hard enough to send him to the ground, where he lay twitching slightly.

Shaking her head at her friend Sakura turned to look at the older boy with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Hello Kabuto-san, I didn't know you would be trying again."

Giving the pink haired girl a slightly shaky smile after seeing what had happened to the young Inuzuka, the now identified Kabuto rubbed the back of his head in a clear sign of embracement.

"What can I say, seventh times a charm I guess, ha-ha."

Walking up to stand next to their teammate, Sasuke and Madoka gave the older boy an appraising look before turning to look at the pink haired girl.

"You know this guy Sakura?"

Nodding her head Sakura turning and introduced Kabuto to the group.

"Yes, this is Kabuto; I met him at the hospital. He's training to be a med-nin too, Shizune-sama told me he is at the top of his group."

With an embarrass bush creeping onto his face at the praise he was receiving and pushing his glasses up, the silver haired gennin let out an nervous laugh.

"I'm not that good; this is my seventh time at the Chunnin Exam after all. I'm more of a support type."

After that they talked for a while, Kabuto even showed them his info cards and told them some information on some of the other contestants, including the newly created Sound village. They had been talking for several minutes when team 7 suddenly felt three other gennin rushing towards them through their **Awareness** heading straight for an unsuspecting Kabuto.

The moment they were in range the three moved as one. One minute they were talking to the group normally and the next the whole room went completely silent as they starred at the three in shock.

A team of Sound-nin had tried to attack Kabuto from behind, two boys and one girl, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by the three younger gennin.

Madoka had drawn her chokuto from its place on her back in one smooth movement and now had the tip pressed against the jugular vein of the now wide eyed Sound-nin that was covered in bandages from head to toe, leaving only his right eye visible. Sakura had grabbed the arm of a pretty dark haired girl just as she was about to throw several senbon in a vice like grip that if the girls face was anything to go by was actually a little painful and Sasuke had somehow managed to get behind the last of the three, a brown haired boy, and pin his arms behind his back with one arm while the other snaked around his neck in a choke.

But it wasn't the way they had reacted that had shocked the room, or the speed in which they had moved. It was the look in their eyes, cold and calculating, none of the happiness that had been there moments before when they had been talking to their friends. It was a look that many of the older gennin had seen before and it put them on edge straight away. Many made mental notes to avoid the team if at all possible during the exam.

Before anything else could happen a large cloud of smoke erupted from the corner of the room and a group of Leaf-nin appeared, a scared man with an angry look on his face stood at the front.

XXX

In a another room a few doors down from where the first stage of the Exam was being held the Jonnin sensei of all the different gennin were gathered around several large screen TVs that were showing what was happening in the room.

They were bunched in several groups, mostly only talking with people from their own village with the odd exception.

In one of these groups was the sensei's of what was now being called the Rookie 12. Because they were the youngest to be participating in the Exam this time around, or for quite some time actually, they had gotten a lot of attention.

Naruto, Itachi, Asuma, Kurenai and Guy were stood around one of the TVs discussing how they thought their gennin would do in the exam when they saw what had happened with team 7 and the Sound-nin.

They all sent wary looks towards the two youngest of their group, waiting for an explanation that didn't come. Itachi could be seen with a small smirk on his face as they watched the scene play out and Naruto just kept what little of his face that could be seen from under his hood blank.

It was when they could see all the gennin starting the exam that the group of Leaf Jonnin were joined by a surprising man.

Killer-Bee made his way over to the five with a small note book in his hand and could be heard muttering to himself quietly. After finishing what he was writing the Kumo Jinjuriki smiled at them.

"Yo, what you know bros and hoes; I'm Killer-Bee, cus I float like a butterfly and sting like me."

They could all see the tick mark form on the red eyed woman's face at being called a hoe, but before she could beat some manners into him Guy interrupted her.

"AH, my most youthful friend, to what do we own this most welcome greeting!"

After taking a second to let the ringing in their ears stop, the group looked to the large Cloud-nin who just shrugged his shoulders.

"Just thought I'd come and say hi, because I'm just that fly a guy."

At the small spike of killing intent they turned to Naruto, who was staring at the older man with his hood shadowing his eyes, giving him an ominous look.

"I thought I warned you last time to stop speaking like that around me."

None of them missed the small step back that Killer-Bee took when he heard the boy's words, or the slightly nervous chuckle that escaped his lips as he raised his hands in the air in surrender.

They all stood in silence for a few minutes, not noticing how much attention they were getting from the other occupants in the room when something seemed to click into place in Itachi's head as he saw the Cloud-nin head band and the fact he seemed to know Naruto. A mischievous smile spread across his face, something that wasn't missed by the young Namikaze.

"So tell me Bee-san, you must have gennin in the exam, would you happen to have any girls in your team?"

Looking to the younger boy with a raised eyebrow, Bee nodded his head and pointed to his gennin on the screen.

"Two actually, Karui and Samui, why do you ask?"

Ignoring the man, the Uchiha let a grin stretch across his face when he saw the white haired boy's stiff posture and took a moment to examine the two girls pointed out to him.

"So Jacky-boy, which one is it the redhead or the blonde."

Getting curios, the rest of the Jonnin moved in closer to look at the youngest members of their group.

"Which one is what?"

Turning to Kurenai with the grin still in place, Itachi let out a small chuckle.

"He's been dating a girl from Kumo for the last week or so but wouldn't tell me who she is, seeing as they are the only team of Cloud-nin in this exam it has to be one of them."

Getting a confused look on his face, Bee moved to stand next to the dark haired boy, completely forgetting his nervousness at being around Naruto.

"You must be mistaken; my team have had next to no contact with him excepted when we bumped into each other the other day in the street. Since then the only one not in my sights at all times was..."

Trailing off at the end of his sentence, Bee looked at the young jonnin with wide eyes.

The grin on Itachi's face stretched even wider as he saw the normally stone like Naruto start to fidget and his face turn a light shade of blue, which he know from all the times he had teased the boy was his equivalent of a blush.

Looking to the large man seemingly frozen next to him with his mouth wide open in shock, the raven haired teen pushed for an answer.

"Who was the one not with you?"

Snapping out of his shock Killer-Bee shook his head and let a small frown cross his lips as he seemed to mutter to himself.

"I should have known something was off with her, never should have shown her the bingo book. She never could resist strong men."

Looking back to the still blushing blond, the Jinjuriki shook his head yet again.

"She challenged you to a fight didn't she?"

At his silent nod Bee let out a sign and turned to look back at the screen.

At this point the other jonnins in their group had started to smirk at the younger boy, well except Guy; he just sent him a dazzling grin that could have blinded someone, and were all eager to learn just who it was that had gotten 'Jack Frost' to go on a date.

It was common knowledge around the village that he was considered one of the most sort after ninja in Konoha, even if he was only 15. Not a week would go bye without him being asked out by at least one girl, which wasn't made any easier by Itachi.

Turning back to Naruto with a grin now plastered over his face that was a little unnerving, Bee reached over and gave the smaller boy a hard pat on the back that would have sent any other to the ground.

"Well if that's what she wants far be to for me to interfere, not that I could even if wanted to right?"

Finally having enough, Itachi almost shouted at the large blonde man stood next to him.

"Will you just tell us which one it is?"

Looking at the others in the group as if he had only just remembered they were there, Bee pointed to the large chested blonde on the screen that seemed to have finished the test and was just sitting with her eyes fixed on the clock, waiting for the 'final question'.

Looking from the girl no the screen to his still blushing friend, who still amazed him that he could keep a straight face while turning that colure, Itachi put an arm around Naruto's shoulders and pretended to wipe away a tear from the corner of his eye.

"Jacky-boy, I can honestly say that throughout all the years I have known you I have never been more proud than I am right now. That has to be one of the hottest girls I have ever seen, I see why you liked kissing her so much."

They could practically see the tick mark that appeared on Naruto's forehead through his hood and the temperature dropping several degrees.

"You know I will make you pay for this, right?"

"Ha, give it your best shot Jacky-boy."

"I wonder what Haku would think if I told her what you just said about Samui-chan?"

If Itachi's face went any paler he would have been almost as white as Naruto.

XXX

**Please remember what I said before about Killer Bee, I'm not that good at rapping so for the most part I will not be writing it.**

**R&R :)**


	9. Snake in the Grass-nin

**Sorry it's took me so long to update, I haven't got any excuse I just haven't been writing for a while. Hopefully this chapter will make up for it. :)**

**Before you read this chapter I ask you all to remember that this is a fanfic so I have made changes to certain things, be sure to read the AN at the end, I will go into more detail then so I don't spoil the chapter by telling you what to expect before you read it :)**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 9- Snake in the Grass-nin

As the gennin looked out over the fence that surrounded the Forest of Death, the place that they would have to survive in for the second stage of the Chunnin exam, none of them could stop the involuntary shiver that ran down their spines at the sight. The trees were even bigger then the ones that surrounded the Leaf village, stretching into the sky and casting large shadows over them all, the spaces in-between the trees nothing but dark shadows with strange, unrecognisable shapes crawling through them.

Anko, a strange woman wearing nothing more then a short orange skirt, a fishnet undershirt, a tan trench coat and an odd necklace with a vile on it around her neck, who was the proctor for the second stage of the exam was completely insane and didn't help their moods. She seemed to be taking pleasure in the way the forest was affecting them all, talking about the different types of mutated animals that lived in it and the poisonous plants that could be found.

When she had first burst into the exam room where they had taken the test many had thought her mad, along with a large portion of the males in the room passing out at the sight of her, she had just burst through a window and started screaming at them. Given the stress they had all gone through in the first stage it hadn't helped their already shaken nerves.

After reluctantly following the possibly disturbed women to the outskirts of the village they had listened to her speech and two more teams dropped out when they had been handed death wavers to sign, the realisation that they might actually die if they entered the dark forest proving too much for them to cope.

Madoka and her team were currently stood waiting outside a large gate with the number 13 pained on it, a Heaven scroll sealed in the tattoo on her right hand. Turning to Sasuke and Sakura with a serious face, the blonde kunoichi spoke in a quite voice so as to be sure they wouldn't be overheard by any of the other teams.

"So how are we doing this?"

Looking through the fence into the shadows, his eyes flashing red, Sasuke took a moment to think before he answered.

"... We have several options here. Option one, we go straight for the tower and set a trap for another team, but the problem with that is we wouldn't be the only team to do something like that. Option two, we set up camp somewhere in the middle of the forest and wait for another team to attack us, the problem being that we might not be found. And the third option is we go looking for one of the other teams, the problem being we wear ourselves out looking."

Nodding their heads at his words, Sakura and Madoka took a moment, completely aware that they were running out of time to decide before the gate opened.

"What if we mixed the three up a little?"

Seeing that she had their attention, Sakura continued.

"We set up camp about a mile away from the tower, which pretty much guarantees us running into another team. Madoka can make clones and have them Henge into us to looks for other teams and maybe even have a few change into animals to use as an early warning around our camp. This way we can set a trap for another team, be close to the tower when we get the other scroll, and with the clones keeping tabs on the other teams we can find them quickly if time starts to run out."

For a moment none of them said anything, Sasuke and Madoka both just staring at their pink haired teammate in slight shock. After a moment the shock was replaced with grins.

XXX

Several hours later found team seven in a small clearing about a mile and a half away from the tower. The clearing was a descent size, big enough that they wouldn't be restricted if a fight broke out but small enough that it wasn't too easy to see from a distance.

As soon as they had found it Madoka had made about a hundred clones and split them up into four groups, one group to Henge into Sakura one group into Sasuke, another to Henge into various animals and the last staying the same.

One of the things Madoka had learned while training with her brother/sensei was that not only could her clones use Awareness, but she could also link her own rang with theirs. This meant she could extend her already impressive 61 feet into an almost limitless rang. The only problem she had found with it though was that it took an enormous amount of concentration in order to process the rush of information that came with the added rang, which meant that he short range was weaker. It almost like there were two circles around her, the inside one that she was in was what she couldn't sense and the outside was what she could. She could still sense when someone was or something was coming towards her, but she had a harder time pinpointing how or what it was.

She called it her **Spiders Web** technique.

As the blonde Namikaze settled into a meditative position in their camp so she could concentrate on what her clone could feel Sasuke sat down next to Sakura and handed the pinket one of the energy bars he had unsealed. After a few minutes of silence, the raven haired teen turned to look at her from the corner of his eye.

"So... what made you agree to go on a date with that Lee guy, I thought for sure you were going to turn him down?"

"I almost did"

Seeing the confused expression on his face, Sakura smiled and after finishing the last bite of her bar explained.

"Ever since we became Genin and Naruto-sensei told me I was likely to die the first time we left the village it got me thinking. He was right, I was pathetic. Fawning over you like a lost puppy, it makes he cringe just thinking back on it. I guess that's why he trained me so hard, kept me busy and after a certain amount of time I realize it was just a silly little crush. Beside, you already have your eye on someone."

When he saw the smirk on Sakura's face and the way she glanced over to Madoka when she said the last part Sasuke couldn't stop the blush from creeping across his cheeks and after a moment looked away from the still mediating kunoichi.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not really, but we are a team. Don't worry I'm not going to say anything, but you should. You never know when someone might come by and catch her eye."

Looking down at the ground so she couldn't see the blush on his face brighten even more, Sasuke let out a sigh before turning his attention back to his pink haired friend.

"You still didn't tell me why you said yes"

He had been hoping to get a blush out of the girl the same way she had him, but to his disappointment all she did was shrug her shoulders and smile.

"Why not? He seemed like a nice guy, a bit hyper maybe, but I'm used t that after being around Madoka so much. It couldn't hurt to give him a chance. If t works out great, if not I'm sure we could still be friends."

For a moment Sasuke just stared at her in surprise, not sure if he could believe what he was hearing. But that as soon replaced with a look of mock- suspicion.

"Who are you and what have you done with the annoying pink aired girl that used to follow me around and ask for a date all the time?"

Giggling, Sakura leaned over and gave the young Uchiha a light punch on the arm.

They sat their talking about random things for a few hours, waiting to see if Madoka would come out of her trance. Neither was willing to leave the girl while she was like this, even if she could feel everything going on around her Naruto had always warned them that no technique was perfect. For all they know there could be a way around Awareness that they didn't know yet and if that happened they didn't want to leave her unguarded.

The sun was jus disappearing from over head, leaving the three teens in darkness, when Madoka picked something up in her Awareness and opened her eyes. Seeing that she was awake Sakura and Sasuke nodded their heads in understanding and got into position to wait for their guests to make the first move.

What they weren't expecting was for them to just walk into the clearing without a care in the world, alone. It was a Grass-nin; with long black hair covered by a straw hat and plan clothes with a thick purple rope tied around her waste. She had a smile on her face that set the three members of team 7 on edge, it screamed of smug confidence.

"Well, well, well, what have we here, three little mice all alone in a big forest."

As she spoke the Grass-nin's smile changed into a large grin and her eyes locked on each of them one at a time until they ended on Madoka and it grew even larger.

"But what are mice to do when confronted by a snake in the grass?"

Without warning the Grass-nin pulled a kunai out of her sleeve and lunged at Madoka, moving at speeds none of the three gennin expected as she became a blur of motion. If it wasn't for her Awareness warning her at the last possible second the young Namikaze would never have had the time to doge the swipe aimed at her neck.

Dogging to the right and rolling back to her feet several feet away from where she had been stood, Madoka felt her eyes widen. The tree she had been stood in front of had a large cut several feet deep running through it, the strange kunoichi standing with her hand outstretched with the kunai in her hand.

"_Wind chakra!_"

The moment she realized what had happened Madoka was worried, Naruto had told her that elemental manipulation was a jonin level technique. That meant for this kunoichi to be able to add wind chakra into her blade she would have to be at least jonin.

Madoka and her team were strong, but they all knew they weren't that strong.

After getting over his initial shock at the Grass-nins speed, Sasuke quickly flashed through hand seals and, taking a deep breath, sent a large fireball speeding toward the kunoichi's exposed back. The fore ball slammed into the kunoichi and left a large burn mark on the tree she had been stood in front of, but before he could celebrate the now burnt body disappeared into a puff of smoke leaving a burnt log in its place.

Before he even had time to catch his breath Sasuke felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise and turned just in time to get a glance of the kunoichi, a sadistic smirk on her face, before he was sent flying into a tree on the opposite side of the clearing from a kick to his back. As he hit the tree Sasuke let out a choked gasp as blood flew out of his mouth and he lumped to the group barely conscious.

Fighting the urge to run and make sure he was alright, Madoka charged at the Grass-nin and started throwing punches at her as quickly as she could while Sakura made her way over to the fallen Uchiha and started to perform medical Jutsu to try and get him back in the fight.

The moment she was in range Madoka threw a punch at the Grass-nins head, followed by another to her stomach and then quickly turning around on the spot and aiming a kick at her chest. All three moves were blocked with apparent ease, the smirk never leaving the older kunoichi's face as she effortlessly knocked the punches away and grabbed Madoka's outstretched foot, stopping it mere inches away from her stomach.

"You're doing better then I thought little Madoka-chan, strong, fast, I'm impressed"

Eyes widening when she heard the Grass-nin use her name, the blonde kunoichi quickly broke the hole on her foot and jumped away, putting some distance between the two of them.

"How do you know my name, who are you?"

The grin they spread across the older girls face sent a shiver down Madoka's spin and she couldn't stop herself from taking a step back. Chuckling at her reaction, the Grass-nin got a sick gleam in her eyes before she charged forward again.

Barely having time to draw her chokuto to block the kunai that was thrust towards her face, Madoka was sent sliding several feet back from the force of the blow. She cursed herself for getting distracted and quick recovered her footing just in time to block a second strike, this time being able to stand her ground.

For the next few minutes Madoka was forced on the defensive, the fast and surprisingly powerful strikes coming towards her leaving her no opening to attack in her opponent in turn. Without realising it the blonde Namikaze soon found herself with her back to a tree and nowhere left to go.

Smirking at having the girl cornered, the Grass-nin prepared to strike when suddenly she jumped away. Just as she did this Madoka caught sight of Sakura out of the corner of her eye and watched as she punched the ground right where the Grass-nin had been standing, the result of which was a small creator being formed in the ground around her fist about the size of a football.

Before the older kunoichi had time to attack the pinket's exposed back as she panted from exertion from using so much of her chakra, she was kicked in the side of the head by a now fully recovered Sasuke, who had taken advantage of her being distracted by his teammates to land a powerful hit that sent her flying into a tree much like she had him.

The three teens held their breaths as they waited for the cloud of dust to clear, but the moment it did their faces were filled with horrified expressions at what they saw. The left side of the kunoichi's face, the side Sasuke had kicked, was now peeling off, showing even paler skin and one yellow silted eye that reminded they all of a snake.

Smirking at the three, the Grass-nin reached up and pulled the other half of her face off, revelling her to be a man. Chuckling, the older ninja threw what was left of his fleshy mask to the side and grinned at the three teens.

"You're stronger then I expected, but it doesn't make ant difference, you're nowhere near my level."

Now truly scared of the monster that stood before them, Madoka held her chokuto in front of her.

"W-who the hell are you?"

Chuckling yet again at the slight quiver in the blonde girl's voice, the snake like made smirked.

"You remained me so of your brother, you have the same fighting sprit... well, at least he did before I broke him. How is he by the way? I must admit I felt a little proud when I saw his Bingo book entry, after all you could say I'm as much a father to him as that blonde idiot of a Hokage."

Or a moment the world seemed to stop for Madoka, everything slowing down before her eyes as realization hit her. This was the man that had taken her brother, this was the man that had caused them all so much pain, and this was the man that had hurt her family.

"Orochimaru"

The word was said in little more then a whisper, barely even heard by her teammates standing right next to her, but he heard it, and smirked.

Suddenly dark red chakra burst out of Madoka, sending both Sasuke and Sakura flying away from her. The whisker marks on her cheeks thickened, her canines turning into fangs, her nails lengthened and her eyes turned a blood red with slights.

Letting out an animalistic roar, Madoka dropped her chokuto and ran at the still smirking Orochimaru, her eyes blazing with absolute hate for the man that had taken her brother away from them when he was young and almost turned him into a monster.

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

The moment she was within striking distance the Madoka swiped her now clawed hand towards Orochimaru's throat, attempting to claw out his throat. But even with the Kyuubi's chakra flowing through her the young girl was still no match for the older, more experienced ninja. Every swing she made, he would doge effortlessly, the smirk never leaving his face. This just seemed to anger the enraged Jinchuuriki even more, her moves becoming more aggressive.

"**DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!**"

It was after a particularly aggressive swing that left her wide open that Sasuke saw Orochimaru reaching into his pouch, pulled something out, and prepared to stab it into Madoka.

Without thinking about what he was doing Sasuke ran towards Madoka and, just as the object was about to pierce her skin, pushed her out of the way. He felt a small pain in his arm, but ignored it as he land on his feet and rolled away to put some distance between him and the now scowling Orochimaru.

Turing to the young Uchiha, his eyes full of anger, the snake sannin threw the now object in his hand away into the forest.

"You fool what you have done? That wasn't meant for you!"

Before Sasuke could respond he felt a cold sensation spreading throughout his body and the edges of his vision started to blur. Feeling dizzy, he had to place one of his hands on the ground in front of him to stop himself from collapsing and started to breath heavily as it became harder and harder to draw breathe into his lungs.

Frowning at Sasuke as he watched him fall to the ground unconscious, Orochimaru turned to look at a still dazed Madoka before without a word he quickly jump into the trees and ran away at breakneck speed into the darkness.

By the time Madoka was able to get her bearings the Kyuubi's chakra had left her system and Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. Slamming her hand on the ground in frustration, the young kunoichi turned angry eyes in the direction of her teammate, ready to ask him what he was thinking, when she stopped at the sight of a downed Sasuke lying on the ground as Sakura tried to figure out what was wrong with him.

Quickly making her way over to the two, Madoka felt her face pale at the pained expression on the young Uchiha's face and turned worried eyes to Sakura.

"What's wrong with him?"

Without looking p from what she was doing, the pink haired kunoichi frowned.

"I don't know all I saw was Sasuke pushing you out of the way. Then the Grass-nin seemed to get really angry, then she... he... whatever, threw something into the forest and ran off."

"What direction did he throw it in?"

Still not taking her eyes off Sasuke, Sakura pointed in the direction she had seen the snake like man throw whatever it was that had hurt the raven haired Uchiha. After sending another worried glace towards her unconscious teammate, Madoka quickly made her way towards the foliage and began searching for anything out of place.

It took her ten minutes, but eventually she found it, a small needle, no bigger then her pinky finger. There was a small amount of blood on the metal point and whatever had been inside it was now gone, but she could see a small drop of black liquid left in the vile.

Quickly picking it up, being carful not to drop it and lose their only chance of finding out what had been injected into her teammate, Madoka made her way back into the clearing to see the still unconscious Sasuke and Sakura sitting on the ground next to him panting.

Looking up when she heard her blonde teammate, Sakura took a moment to catch her breath before she spoke.

"Did you find anything?"

Handing over the syringe, Madoka sat next to her pink haired friend and looked over to see if Sasuke was any better, but if anything he looked worse.

His skin had gone deadly pale, almost as much as her brothers, and he was covered in a thin layer of sweat as his body shivered. The area around his eyes and darkened, looking almost like he had two black eyes, and his face was contorted into an expression of almost pure agony.

Looking back to the pink haired Med-nin in training, Madoka let a small amount of panic enter her voice.

"What's wrong with him, why haven't you healed him?"

"I can't"

Seeing the confused look on the blondes face, sakura let out a tired sigh and, after sealing the needle into the seal on her shin, slumped a little dew to her extortion.

"I'm only a trainee, whatever that guy injected into him is beyond anything I can heal. Our best bet is to get an Earth scroll, since we can't pull out of the competition, and get him medical attention as soon as possible. At least we have the syringe; Tsunade-sama might be able to help him if she can identify whatever is causing this."

XXX

They spent the night in the clearing, Sakura tried to treat Sasuke as best she could, but no matter what she did his fever didn't brake. Madoka had actually needed to make a clone so that sakura could use it's chakra since she had almost ran out of her own.

Madoka, after making and dispelling a clone to inform her other clones that they needed to speed up there plan, had been meditating none stop. For the last nine hours she had been connected to her web constantly, afraid that if she stopped they would be attacked, and the strain of prolonged use was starting to show as several veins were starting to pop out on her forehead and a small amount of blood was falling down her face from her nose.

When she looked over and saw her friend's state, Sakura let out a sigh and moved over to bring her out of her trance before she got worse. Reaching out and placing her hand on the blonde's shoulder, Sakura pocket her in the head twice, something they agreed would be her safe wake up signal, and stepped back as she jerked slightly and pulled in a large lung full of air.

Grabbing the sides of her head in pain Madoka ran to the edge of the clearing, threw up, then curled up into a ball for several minutes as she was assaulted with a migraine to end all migraines.

Shaking her head, Sakura placed a green glowing hand on her friend's forehead and after a few more minutes Madoka sighed and lay on the ground.

"You shouldn't have used your Web for so long"

"I need to make sure we are prepared if someone else attacks us"

"You _need_ to get some rest; otherwise it isn't going to make a difference if you sense someone coming because you aren't going to be in any condition to fight!"

"That sounds god to us"

Quickly turning towards the sound of the voice, Madoka and Sakura came face to face with the Sound-nin team they had met in the first exam.

Before either had time to question how they had gotten past Madoka's Web, though the blonde Namikaze suspected it was because she was so tired she had mistaken them for smaller animals or something, the three Sound-nin rushed forward and attacked.

XXX

Samui and her team were on their way to the tower, both scrolls placed safely in the blonde's kunai pouch.

They had gotten their second scroll from a team of Rain-nin that had tried to trick them with a genjutsu, but after letting them get close the Cloud-nin had easily defeated them and had taken their scroll for themselves.

It was while they were on their way to the tower that they heard the sounds of a fight not two far away from them and after taking a moment to decide if they should carry on or go and see what was going on, they made their way towards the fighting, being carful not to be seen by the people in the small clearing.

What they saw made Samui's eyes widen slightly.

They could see two teams, one from the Leaf and the other from Sound. One of the Leaf-nin was unconscious and looked to be suffering from the effects of some kind of poison with a boy with spiky hair stood over him laughing, and the only girl on the Sound-nins team was holding a pink haired kunoichi from behind with a kunai pressed into her throat to stop her from moving.

But what really got the blonde Cloud-nin attention was the fact that the last member of the team from the Leaf, a blonde girl that she as able to identify the moment she saw her, was about to get a kunai stabbed into her chest by the Sound-nin that was covered in bandages.

Looking to Omoi, Karui shrugged her shoulders and made to turn around and walk away.

"One last team to be worried about I guess."

Before either of her teammates could stop her, Samui sent three kunai into the clearing, one at each of the Sound-nin which forced them all to move away from their captives, and quickly jumped into the clearing in front of the almost completely warn out Madoka, katana drawn and ready to attack any of the Sound-nin at a moments notice.

Even though they didn't understand why she had saved the three Leaf-genin, Samui was their captain and both Karui and Omoi moved into position to protect the other two Leaf-nin before they realised they were doing it.

Scowling at the three Cloud-nin, Dosu moved his metal arm in front of his body in a defensive stance as locked his eyes on Samui.

"Why are you interfering in our fight, this has nothing to do with you so leave."

In a flat voice that showed none of her emotions, Samui frowned slightly before giving her answer.

"I can't do that"

Growling in frustration Zaku was about to send one of his air blasts at all of them, hoping to kill them all in one go, when his, and every other set of eyes, were drawn to the unconscious Uchiha.

For some unknown reason, Sasuke's body started to spasm violently, his back arching at an unnatural angle, and a scream ripped out of his throat. Suddenly he was surrounded by a field of pure chakra, his body started to thrash around even more and his screams increased in volume. Then, as quickly as it had started, he fell silent again, his body going limp and his breathing returning to normal. The chakra that had been surrounding him started to collect around his forehead and started to swirl like a whirlpool as it seeped into his head.

XXX

Slowly opening his eyes, Sasuke took a moment to survey his surroundings. His head was still fuzzy and he was having a hard time organising his thoughts. He looked at his teammates, just being able to understand that they were hurt, but when is eyes landed on the others in the clearing he got confused again.

Then something happened that, even in his confused state, the young Uchiha was able to act on.

The world around his lost all colour, seeming to bleed into black and white before his eyes. As if in slow motion he watched as the spiky haired Sound-nin lifted his arms and fired a compressed burst of air right at his head. He could see the chakra in the attack, the wind speeding towards him like a built, and before he could do anything he felt it hit him in the head.

Then everything went back to normal, colour returned to the world and it was like nothing had happened. But then he watched as the same boy he had seen before lifted his arms and pointed them at him and fire a burst of air directly at his head. But unlike before, when he had seen it hit him, Sasuke drunkenly tilted his head to the left at the last possible moment and the attack hit a tree behind him.

Before he could process what had just happened, the world yet again lost all its colour and he turned his head and saw multiple air bullets speeding towards him.

After that everything seemed to be a blur, his body moving on auto pilot.

Sasuke got to his feet and dodged the first bullet, the got hit by the second, and then he would dodge that and get hit by the third. Without even realising it Sasuke had drunkenly made his way though the storm of compressed air attacks and was now stood in front of a terrified Zaku.

The look on the boys face confused him for a moment, not understanding why he was staring at him in such open horror, but in his current state of mind he couldn't care less. Grabbing the Sound-nins left wrist, he gave a violent jerk an after feeling the bones in his wrist brake under the pressure proceeded to repeat the action with the other.

With Zaku now out of commotion, the still slightly confused Sasuke held out his hand towards the remaining Sound-nin and said one word.

"Scroll"

Without argument Dosu pulled their earth scroll out of his pouch, threw it to the Uchiha, grabbed Zaku and ran off into the trees, Kin not a second behind her.

With the threat now gone Sasuke turned back to his team, not noticing the Cloud-nin, and gave a slightly shaky smile as he held up the scroll in his hand.

But then he realised that they weren't looking at the scroll, they were staring at his forehead.

More specifically they were staring at eye that was now resting in the centre of it.

XXX

**Hope you all like this chapter; again sorry it took so long to finish it.**

**Now I know you are all wondering what's going on with Sasuke, though I'm sure a few of you already have a good idea of what's going on. I will explain more about it over the next few chapters (evil grin).**

**Like I said at the start of the chapter this is a fanfic so I have decided that instead of what would be the normal thing to do, being Sasuke getting the next stage of the sharingan, I have made it into something completely my own.**

**For those of you that don't agree with that I am sorry but that's what I am going to do :P**

**R&R XD**


	10. Your What!

**IMPORTANT AN**

**I finally realised why so many people were getting confused with the ages, the problem was that I made a mistake and had Madoka and the others graduate at 11 instead of 13. I went back and have added two years to all the character, meaning Naruto is now 15 and Madoka 13.**

**I think I changed it all where it needed to be changed but if anyone sees something I missed please let me know :)**

**Also, several people have asked me if the third eye on Sasukes head was a 'Jagan', I had no idea what it was when I wrote the last chapter. After reading the information on what it is I can say that I don't think it is. I will say well done to **serialkeller**, because he is the only one so far to figure out** **what it does.**

**One last thing before you start reading I am looking for someone to Beta this fic, including the previous chapters, if anyone is interested please PM me :)**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

XXX

Chapter 10- Your What!

None of them could look away from the strange eye, it seemed to mesmerise them, pull them in and hold them in place. The sclera was pure black and although the pupil looked almost exactly like the Sharingan, a dot with three comers surrounding it, unlike the sharingan instead of black they looked like four small mirrors slowly spinning in a sea of black.

Even while Sasukes normal eyes, sharingan active, were half closed and slightly dazed, the one on his forehead was wide open and alert to every move they made. They watched amazed as it blinked at them, before slowly moving around the clearing, as if cheeking for any other attackers. It seemed to linger on Samui and her teammates for a moment, but after spinning slightly faster, moved on.

The whole time this was going one Sasuke didn't move, it looked like he was sleepwalking, acting on auto pilot. After several more minutes of the eye searching, it slowly started to close until all that was left was a small line in the centre of the young Uchiha's forehead.

The moment it closed completely Sasukes body went limp and slumped to the ground in a heap.

Quickly getting over their shock, Madoka and Sakura ran to their downed friend, Samui and her team only a few steps behind. Turning him over so that he was lying on his back Sakura, her hands glowing with a soft green light, started to check for any damages.

After a few minutes of waiting, even though she didn't understand why they were there to begin with, Karui frowned and leaned over to look at the unconscious teen.

"What the hell was all that about, why the hell does he have three eyes?"

Jumping at the red headed kunoichi's voice, Madoka looked up at the three Cloud-nin that had saved them and frowned.

"Even if we knew that why would we tell you? You're from a different village."

Eye twitching, Karui held up her fist in a threatening gesture and growled slightly.

"Hey squirt! Is that any way to talk to the people that just saved your sorry ass?"

Before anymore could be said Samui sent a small glare at her short tempered teammate, which silenced her instantly, stepped forward, crouched down next to the Sakura and looked at the still form of Sasuke as the pink haired medic did what she could.

"What's his condition?"

Leaning back and sitting on the ground, Sakura wiped the sweat from her head before looking at the older blonde and, after a moment of hesitation, explained what she had found. After all if they were going to attack them they would have by now, not that either her or Madoka could do much to defend themselves in their current state.

"His charka is low, nothing a good night's sleep wouldn't fix, but he has a high fever to which is worrying me. As for the eye, I have now idea."

"Is it safe to move him?"

Thinking for a moment, in which she looked at both Madoka's tired and beaten appearance along with her own, Sakura shook her head.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, until his fever breaks it's best to move him as little as possible."

Nodding her head in understanding, Samui stood and turned to her team.

"Set up a perimeter around the clearing, report in every ten minutes and if anything happens let me knows and I'll come and help."

Frowning at their captain's weird behaviour, Karui and Omoi both looked from the three Leaf-nin then back to Samui. Stepping forward so she was stood next to the blonde, Karui leaned in and whispered in an attempt to keep the others from hearing.

"Why the hell are we risking our necks for them, we've got both scrolls so why don't we just leave them and go to the tower?"

Even though she had whispered the others in the clearing had all heard her as clear as day. Sighing, Samui leaned over and whispered, low enough so that only Kauri could here, into her ear. They all watched as the red headed teens eyes went wide and her mouth fell open in shock.

"What do you mean your-!"

Before she could finish her sentence Samui placed her hand over her mouth and sent her a hard glare. After a moment silence Karui nodded her head and, though she didn't look happy about it, turned to a confused Omoi, grabbed his arm and pulling him towards the tree line.

"Come on Omoi"

"but-"

When the two had left Samui turned back to the two conscious members of team 7 to find them both looking at her with raised eyebrows. Letting out another sigh, the older blonde went about setting up a small camp in the clearing next to the one they had made earlier.

After a moment of thought, Madoka stood from her position next to Sasuke and walked over to the Cloud-nin, leaving Sakura to tend to Sasuke.

She came up behind the older girl, who was crouched down while she set a small trap at the edge of the clearing, and after taking a deep breath spoke.

"I'm sorry about what I said before, about you being from a different village."

Without stopping what she was doing Samui looked at the blonde out of the corner of her eye. Despite the different hair colour, the tan skin and eyes she was almost an exact copy of her brother, they both had the same face.

Standing up and turning to her fellow with her usual expressionless face, Samui let a small, almost unseen smile cross her lips.

"It's cool, and you don't need to apologise, you were right to be weary of us."

For a moment Madoka didn't know what to say, slightly shocked at hearing her brother's favourite word coming out of the stoic kunoichi's mouth. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, the young Namikaze smiled back at the older girl before a thought hit her and a confused expression came to her face.

"Why are you helping us anyway?"

At the question Samui closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She had hoped, though it had been unlikely, that she wouldn't have been asked that question. Though she didn't really care who new, especially now seeing as she had told Karui, that she and Naruto were dating, she didn't want to be the one to tell his sister before he had the chance to tell her himself. After taking a moment to decide what she should say Samui settled on telling her the truth, just not all of it.

"I know your sensei so I thought I'd help, my team followed my lead."

"You know my brother? Why didn't you just say that from the start?"

"There were more pressing matters to deal with at the time."

Rubbing the back of her head and chuckling, Madoka smiled and nodded her head before moving back to her teammates.

XXX

The two teams spent the night in the small clearing and by morning Sasukes fever had broke so they were packed up and setting off towards the tower just as the sun came up. None of them had talked much, though Samui knew that both Karui and Omoi were going to bombard her with questions the moment they were alone.

Sasuke was still unconscious, which meant Madoka had to have two clones carry him, but even that didn't slow them down too much. They were just lucky that they had camped so close to the tower and that they didn't run into any other teams on their way.

Neither of the teams said anything to each other as they walked through two different doors, giving each other silent nods before going their separate ways. The moment the door closed behind them Karui turned to Samui and, after take a deep breath practically screamed.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOUR DATING HER BROTHER!"

Her face still not changing from its usual bored expression, the blonde Cloud-nin crossed her arms under her large chest and levelled a blank stare at her red headed teammate.

"It means I'm dating her brother."

"B-b-but their Leaf-nin!"

"So?"

Looking towards Omoi for help, only to see him on the other side of the room whistling, Karui growled and threw her sandal at his head, knocking him over. Turing back to her friend and captain, Karui frowned.

"Just who the hell is this guy anyway?"

Walking further into the room and looking at the inscription written on the wall, Samui pulled out their two scrolls from her kunai pouch before answering.

"You met him about a week ago."

Getting a confused look on her face at the girl's words, Karui frowned.

"That's impossible, the only Leaf-nin we met last... week... was..."

Trailing off at the end of her sentence as the realisation of what she was being told hit her, Karui's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open in shock.

"You mean you... and... that girl was... but... WHAT THE HELL?"

Still not turning to look at her flustered teammate, Samui continued to look from the scrolls in her hands to the wall, a thoughtful expression on her face. After another moment of thought, the blonde kunoichi turned to Karui and Omoi, her face still showing almost no emotion at all.

"Yes, I'm dating Naruto Namikaze, yes that was his sister, no we haven't talked about anything to do with the Exam, no Be-sensei doesn't know. We've been seeing each other for about a week now and neither of us wanted to tell anybody until we were ready, the fact of the matter I that if it wasn't for the situation in the forest I don't know when we would have told anyone. Now pull yourself together, we are still in the middle of the chunnin exam and I am about to open these scrolls so we can move on to the next round."

Without waiting for them to reply Samui opened the scrolls and threw them on the ground in front of her, taking a step back as smoke started to rise out of the pages. Without warning a small explosion of white smoke erupted out of the scrolls and when it cleared there stood a man that all three Cloud-nin recognised.

He looked to be in his late teens to early twenties, with his black hair tied back into short pony tail and two bangs framing both sides of his face. He wore a long black trench coat that reached down to his ankles left undone, showing the dark blue T-shirt and black shinobi pants that he wore underneath it. His face looked almost exactly like the boy from the team they had helped, the only real difference between the two was that the man stood before them was older and more experienced.

The grin on the older Leaf-nins face as he looked at them did nothing to help both Karui and Omoi's unease at the sight of one of the most feared Genjutsu masters in the Elemental Nations, Uchiha Itachi. After there encounter with Naruto Killer-Bee had made his team memorise all of the active Leaf-nin in the bingo book as punishment for Karui almost picking a fight, meaning that they knew all about the things Itachi was able to do and his reputation for being one of, if not the most sadistic shinobi.

Though they did wonder why he looked like he had been in a fight recently, jugging from the multiple bruises on his face and the fat lip that still seemed to be bleeding slightly.

However unlike her two teammates that looked about ready to wet themselves Samui let a small smirk grace her lips when she saw his eyes land on her, the mischievous light that seemed to flash into his eyes telling her all she needed to know. He knew about her and Naruto, and he was going to try and he was enjoying the reaction his presence got from her teammates.

With his hands in his pocket, Itachi slowly walked forward and circled around the blonde Cloud-nin, showing that he was limping slightly, his eyes taking everything in as he hummed to himself quietly. When he cam to stand back in front of her he stopped walking, put a hand to his chin as if thinking for a moment, before his grin practically doubled in size and he nodded his head.

"Congratulations on finishing the second round of the chunnin exam, at this point I'm supposed to explain to you the meaning of the words written on the wall, but to be perfectly honest I'm not going to. Why, because I just don't give a flying monkey shit about it."

Laughing, Itachi sent a beaming smile towards Samui, ignore the other two completely, and put his arm around her shoulders to pull her into a one armed hug.

"So you're the one that's dating Jacky-boy? Well I approve you seem like a lovely young woman, not to mention the fact that know I can make fun of him for finally having a girlfriend. Me and you have got to go and get drinks sometime, give me a chance to tell you all the funny stories I have on him."

Raising an eyebrow at the dark haired Leaf-nin, Samui kept her face as neutral as she could and turned to look at his still grinning face.

"Did Naruto tell you?"

Taking his arm off her shoulders and rubbing the back of his head as he let out a small chuckle, Itachi took a step back and gave her a weak smile.

"Not exactly..."

Seeing he wasn't going to explain what he meant by that Samui turned to her teammates, who had now calmed down enough to realise that he wasn't going to do anything to them, and had move to stand on either side of her. After a moment of silence, Karui couldn't take it anymore and gestured to Itachi and his beat up appearance.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Looking down at himself for a moment, the older Uchiha flashed a proud grin.

"I pissed off my Girlfriend and she kicked my ass."

At his words, along with the proud grin that was still on his face when he said this, both Omoi and Kauri face faulted. Before any of them could ask any more questions, there was a loud noise muffled by the thick stone walls, then ice started to form on the wall to their left.

Looking at the wall with a raised eyebrow, Itachi scratched the side of his head in thought.

"Hmm, well that could be one of two things. One, someone just pissed off Haku-chan or two, someone just pissed off Jacky. Either way, I should probably go and check that out be-"

XXX

The first thing Sakura and Madoka did when the door closed behind them was lay Sasuke down on the ground next to the wall on their left and take a moment to catch their breaths. Looking at the still unconscious Uchiha in concern, Madoka turned to her pink haired friend.

"What do we do now?"

Looking around the room Sakura soon found her eyes drawn to the writing on the wall.

"I guess we have to open the scrolls..."

Nodding her head at the pinket's words, Madoka unsealed both their scrolls and without a word threw one to Sakura. The moment they opened them they realise that they were summoning scrolls and the moment the smoke started to leak out they threw them to the ground just as a large puff of smoke exploded out of them.

When the smoke cleared it revealed Naruto, standing with his hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face when his eye landed on his sister. Before he could even get any words out he was forced to steady himself as a blonde hit him with enough force to almost throw him off balance.

At first he thought it was just Madoka doing what she always did, but after a moment he realised that something was wrong. He felt the tears that were falling down his sister's face, and even though her face was pressed into his chest he could still make out the muffled words she kept repeating over and over.

"It's my fault"

That was when his eyes landed on Sakura and Sasuke, the pink haired med-nin in training kneeling down next to the young Uchiha's unconscious body. For a moment Naruto feared the worst, thinking that the boy was dead, but after a moment he relaxed a little when he saw that Sasuke was still breathing. Separating himself from his sister the white haired jonnin quickly made his way over to his other two students and knelt down next to Sakura.

"What happened?"

Before any words could leave Sakura's mouth Madoka spoke one word that made her brother's entire body go stiff.

"Orochimaru"

The temperature in the visibly dropped as the two conscious members of team 7 started to see their breath in the air in front of them.

"He was in the forest and attacked us, I lost control. Sasuke pushed me out of the way and got injected with something and..."

Stopping what she was saying as she looked at her brother Madoka's eyes widened and she started to slowly back away, Sakura doing the same thing as she pulled Sasuke with her, as the area around Naruto started to get colder and colder to the point the ground around him had started to freeze. They could see his body start to shake with uncontrolled rage as what cold be seen of his face under his hood started to turn a light shade of blue and the white swirls in his eyes covered the blue completely.

Quickly standing up Naruto was about to make his way to the door and tear the forest apart looking for the man that had been the cause of so much of his pain when his eyes landed on the unconscious form of his student. Like a bucket of cold water had been thrown on him Naruto stopped and thought about what he was doing. The snake would be long gone by now and Sasuke needed him.

Letting out a breath, Naruto turned and leaned his head against the wall to try and help calm himself down, barely even registering the fact that he hit it and that in his mental state he wasn't able to control his ice chakra and it burst out of his fist on impact, freezing the wall in the process.

When he had calmed down enough so that his features had returned to normal, Naruto turned back to his team, picked Sasuke up and without saying a word walked off towards the infirmary, Madoka and Sakura right behind him.

XXX

**Hope you all enjoyed this chapter; I know it's a little short but the next one will be longer, this was just the best place to stop it. Next chapter will have semi-finals.**

**:)**


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